Alicia Kwok
Exploding Fish Museum
The plump fish is a metaphor for fertility
Hammered and nailed into transparent vinyl
A seafood spread Out in deference to a looming I,
The deteriorating organism
Spews out pheromone
Spews glitter, spews gas
I am afraid to look closer
At beautiful things
One fish is sequined up along the spine
As a garment in a costume chest
Received by a group of young girls
For Christmas,
They shake on a turquoise tail,
Exchange it, One bare foot extended
To the next
Glimmerous lifecycle As a mollusk
Invents patterns
To amuse itself
“How stinky,”
Remarks a museumgoer
“This can be explained by recent events,”
The curator elucidates that this was before
Democratic institutions took hold Of the ocean
Unless it was the other way around,
The legislative body Flooded with salt
And glorious freedom
To shirk one’s syntactical responsibility
We understand Potassium permanganate increases
The combustible nature of flammable materials
So many fish sitting In the black soup of their own
Sickly decay So many beautiful things
Exploding In supernovas
Of odorous death
Trapped by an infinite net, Fish are all puking down the stairs
As the chemical tide
Thunders in
Alicia Kwok is a poet from New York City currently pursuing an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Lantern Review, The Poetry Project Newsletter, and MAYDAY.