Jake's Flea Market

tell mother father fed me carp

carp fished   out of the season of snowmelt
and out of the season of high water in the elbe

and the march and the april of icicle drip
and the may and the june of flood were
in the carp father fed me i’m sure

it was before i remembered   
that the late winter and the early spring swam
in through my lips and through my mouth

down my throat they gilled out a melting
with a fin flick   and with a fin flick
they swam down through the thaw
and down through the thin 
ice from the time before birth i’m sure

all day the warming weathers sat
in the quiet pool of my belly   they waved
gossamer fins to remain motionless

and in the shortened night those seasons
gathered in my swaddling cloth
and until dawn opened the dark   they stayed