The Goldfish Children
To tick and tock
Of time’s pendulum swinging
I count each fish’s scale
Color by color
Orange to red
Red to gold to yellow
Against a sheet of glass
I stare in
They don’t stare back
Perhaps it’s eye strain magnifying
Fins and budging eyes
Their memory of three seconds
Tick, tick tock
Yet they remember
When they’re hungry
While I forget to eat
At least I understand to stop
Stomach full, mouth satisfied
But they just die, upright bellied
Caught in grim grown filters
Then it seems
That though the seconds
Tapped against their tank
Time was good for nothing
Those ticking, tocking
Coo-coo clocking minutes, hours, days
Loom towards death unshakable
I kept the food outside their reach
For an obvious reason
And they called me a cruel mother
Erin York is a young writer from Raytown, Missouri. Already, she has published works in literary magazines, such as: New Wine and A Gathering of Birds. She works as a part-time journalist for Teenstar , an extension of The Kansas City Star. She hopes to publish not only more poetry, but also novels. Currently, she is looking forward to summer vacation from high school in order to work on editing her manuscripts and begin a poetry anthology of her own. |