Claudia Emerson

13 January 1957 / Chatham, Virginia

Catfish

It nuzzles oblivion, confuses
itself with mud. A creature

of familiar taste, it ambushes
from its nest of ooze the pond's

brighter fish, clears its palate
with their eggs, lumbers fat

and stagnant into winter, lulled
into dreams of light sinking until

light drowns, and all is as before.
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