pan-fried memory

[gurdonark]

will you go with me, to
the sinks down by the dock,
where we nail our memories,
like catfish,
to the nearest tree,
and use metal grippers,
to smoothly pull off the skin?

watch here the flesh of yesterday's love,
there the whiskers of an unwise decision
we'll clean our ideas of all the
grit and dirt and life, and
we will wait for the grease to heat,
before I drop in a match;
then we'll watch the flame explode
and then subside into cooking grease

imagine, while we bait our hooks
and drop hook, sinker and cork
deep below
how we'll watch bits of fish,
battered in grist mill corn,
and soaked in thick buttermilk,
sinking our pasts
into the heated pan.

we'll be frying souls, those fish,
formerly living things,
lost in batter,
shimmering in grease bubbles,
let's drop them in,
they'll never breathe again,
just watch them brown and crispen.

we'll drop in "hush puppies" as well,
bits of balled corn meal,
confections of fiction and image,
fried as a treat for impatient
dogs and hungry children...
simple things, which never breathed,

but we'll save the fish for the adults,
to be savored and dwelt upon,
salted and seasoned,
slathered with sauces,
will you come with me to the docks,
for we've memories to slaughter
and fry, and savor, for
that's why we fish.

Comments

[burninggirl.livejournal.com]

My gut response to this poem? I want some fish. : ) I only eat fish for one month of the year, January (there are reaons for this, eccentric as they may be), and now it seems like such a long time to wait.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Where I grew up, fried catfish, breaded with
gristmill cornmeal, and fried in a deep cauldron of sunflower seed or peanut oil,
is the local delicacy. I don't eat it too much, anymore--awfully fatty--but some of my richest memories were the taste of the fish and hush puppies and french fries and now I wish it were mid July at my late grandfather's,and I had a plate full of fish (g).

Thanks for commenting...I like fish, too.
But January?

[burninggirl.livejournal.com]

It's a summer/childhood thing. Up until last year, I spent every Christmas/summer holiday (mid-December to late January) at my grandmother's property in rural Tasmania. Bushland on one side, coast on the other, and not much in between. I spent so much time there growing up, all my childhood memories seem to be attached to that place instead of my school-year home in Sydney. There we had no television, no phone, no anything really when it comes to modern appliances, so we'd have to make our own fun. Lots of reading, lots of long walks on the beach and in the bush, and my second brother would go fishing every day and often bring home some sort of catch which we'd generally eat that day. Until I was about sixteen I never tasted fish that hadn't been caught just hours before, and when I did I didn't care for it. I developed this idea that I'd never eat fish unless I was in sight of the coast, to ensure it would be as fresh as possible, and since I live inland, that means no fish until I get back to Tasmania. I guess I could eat shop-bought fish and it wouldn't kill me, but it messes with my childhood memories. : ) In the month of January, when I'm down there, I all but give up meat and eat seafood instead. Call me odd, but it would feel strange to do it differently - amd there's something so nice about looking forward to my yearly fix of fish.

Glad you like the icon, btw. : ) I keep forgetting you don't see them when I post my entries.

tasmanian fish

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Great story...yes, there is something about fresh-caught fish....my wife grew up in Kansas City, in the midwest, and never had much taste for seafood until she moved to California...it just wasn't as fresh. Now, most grocery stores
have fish that is nearly fresh-caught, as that's a very important thing to consumers.

I have never been to any part of Australia, much less Tasmania, but I always imagine that I would like Tasmania best...it always sounds paced well to me.

I had read your post about the varying userpics, but I'm not sure I'd seen them all employed.
I went and clicked on the pics collection on the userinfo page...a very nice variety.

I think that what I like about the one you posted on this one is that it seems a bit
pensive....of course, don't you use Katie Holmes at Dawson's Creek's dock for depression? Katie does depression well, but whenever I see that picture I think more about the Dawson's Creek theme song than depression...

what a nice tradition, a yearly fix of fish...we have friends who go from DC to upper peninsula Michigan each year...the husband, Paul, only fishes in the perch lakes in MI, and doesn't fish the entire rest of the year... there's something good about these traditions...

Re: tasmanian fish

[burninggirl.livejournal.com]

To reply to the most inconsequential bit first: that's me on the jetty, not Katie Holmes. ; ) I just call the icon "Dawson's creek" because that's what the pose, and the mood of the picture, remind me of. My friend uberdork, who took the picture, also has a version made from the picture I took of him in the same pose.

I didn't know you could see a person's collection of pictures on their userpage, although someone else made a comment to sugest you could. I would have named the icons less...personally...if I knew the descriptions were available to all. (I take it you already guessed that that's me and not Kate Bush in the flamboyant pose, then - Iain named that one, and I thought it was a cute name so it stayed.)

I may be extremely biased, but of all Australia (the parts I've seen, anyway - half the states/territories) I love Tasmania best. It has that feeling of home and history for me that nowhere else really could, but more than that, the pace of life is completely different there. It's still made up predominantly of smallish communities, it hasn't succumbed to the ever-increasing urbanisation of the other states. The entire population of the state is less than 500,000, so it feels more personal, and there's this immense feeling of space, of having room to move, not being crowded in, although you can drive from end to end in little more than three hours. The nearest town to where I spend my holidays has a permanent population of less than 400, which swells in the summer as anglers and holidayers are attracted to the beautiful beaches there. There's one supermarket, a post-office/takeaway shop, a pub, a newsagent, and a service station, but that's all you need there. And the beach is quite literally across the road.

And now I'm settling into "raving' mode, so I'd better stop before I carry on for hours...

Re: tasmanian fish

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I thought it *was* Katie Holmes. Perhaps you should name the pensive one you posted previously "Anna Paquin".

I still think of "I don't wanna wait, for our lives to be over", which is kind of the perfect anthem for ages 15 through 25.

Tasmania sounds cool. It's a bit exotic from this vantage point, which is always the advantage of any distance...Canberra itself could be a universe away, as I look at the "Crew Cab" yellow pick up truck someone has parked outside my window.

I spent my years from 5 to 15 in a metropolis of 2300 people, but for some years we had a lake cabin twenty miles away near a bait shop, a small store, and some boat docks....we had all we needed, but who really needs much of anything?

p.s....

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

great userpic

[scott-m.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just because I'm from the Southern U.S. as
well, but your catfish metaphor really, er uh, lured me
in, heh heh.

catfish Scott!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I love that userpic!

That is IT, that's the ONE. That's what
was needed.

On topic, now, I'm glad to lure you in, but I'm worried that makes me a nightcrawler,which would be cool, because they're Canadian, but not so cool, because, well, they're worms.