I couldn’t distinguish a gross seed in my

upper gum           from the snapper’s eye in the bowl 

of tea        looking at the fish I ask    cook,  how 

rigid could be an animal built on         soaking 

                                         looking at my mother     now  how stiff could a body 

                      be    that soaked women into her own body.

                                                           my mother a stiff woman I consider

                           a fish  set in the dutchie now suffocated 

                  by its own waters                     tea’ed her way into Mother,

                           in my sister but mostly I, she sees a 

        gross, rigid seed                             She considers meaning 

                      of my survival how a fisher regards

                                                                         Boat          or other animals besides fish   

She

                       considers me a mother,     an animal 

                                                                    built for abnormal stiffness