Wrist Deep

Vagina Dentata

“A fish inhabits the vagina of the Terrible Mother;
the hero is the man who overcomes the Terrible Mother,
breaks the teeth out of her vagina,
and so makes her into a woman.”

-Erich Neuman

So I’ve always wanted to catch a fish with my hands
the way people snag mosquitoes in summer
or Mr. Miyagi style with the chopsticks, swift.
And that’s how it happens, being snatched up

by a woman, out of no where, like two nailed paws
had come down and struck you. There is something
beautiful about being stunned, eyes glazed over.
Try to imagine not being able to breathe the air.

I sit down at a small sushi bar and wait, kimonos
hanging like curtains against the walls, beach crusted,
hands washed. Where moments before they had passed
between my legs; flounders, sea bass, bat rays.

The waves come down over each other like blinds
pulled up against the sun. And then the slices arrive,
some bits of pickled ginger, split down the middle like fins
splitting under the water you need to live. Surrounded,

all you can do is swallow and never breathe again.