the goldfish

i planted him today
fishy eye
staring as usual
how horrible
to spend your life
lidless
unable to shut out
unpleasantness
or to sleep in darkness

but he sleeps in
the dark now
buried
along with a cousin of his
beneath a bristly fern
ready to give
what is left
of himself
to a new life
just beginning

his body swims in
the dirt now
once-fluid tail
stiffened like
a corn husk
once-glimmering armor
tarnished and dull

out of his element
out of his body
I wonder if he's
paddling serenely
somewhere now
without the
delicate
little oars
he left behind...

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