Fish Inside Fish

Robert Russell

The fishermen who scale and gut their fish

find a river in the bellies of the fish.

On the river a canoe floats beneath the eyes

of eagles and kingfishers. A family of immigrants

has built a fire on a sandbar in the middle of the river.

The mother and aunts and grandmothers all stand

around the fire singing a song for their mothers

that has never been written.

Their children wade into the river, fascinated

by the bright aluminum canoe, how it flashes,

as an eagle rises toward the sun.

The children’s hands stir the water

into hundreds of tiny whirlpools as they move,

chattering and laughing, calling to the boy and girl lazing

in the belly of the canoe. They drift and wave.

The children’s hands wave back, quiet as maple leaves.

The river murmurs and forgets a question

that’s answered in the song the women are singing

on the sand. Smoke from the fire climbs its simple rope

until it forgets children, fire, singing, hands.

There are schools of flashing fish in the river

inside the bellies of the fish that have been caught,

and a shadow passes over them all. The eagle

melts into the sky.

ROBERT RUSSELL is a poet and prose writer. He coordinated the CheapAtAnyPrice poetry series in Madison, WI, and co-produced the program Radio Literature on WORT-FM in Madison for several years. He has taught poetry workshops in Mexico, Wisconsin, and at the National Poetry Slam.