Cleaning the Catch

Gary Stein

I.
When the twitching ends,
or better, before, scrape
with the flat of your blade,
let the gritty scales fly and root
in the hair of your arm. Slit
behind the pectoral, sever the head.

Gash a thin line from belly
to anus, spill the guts:
look for eggs, so good
In butter and lemon.
Irrigate the cavity.

II.
Though you scrub with vinegar
and soap, you may wake
to scales in your bed
and beneath your nails
the rank odor of fish.
On your breath its breath.

What’s stolen from a river haunts.
Again the arcing rainbow,
a lure locked on its lips, its agony
and death-smell return.
No fish is as simple as its body.
Once, we too lived inches from air.

Gary Stein's full-length collection, Touring The Shadow Factory (Brick Road Poetry Press, forthcoming 2019) won first prize in the publishers' 2017 national contest. His chapbook, Between Worlds (Finishing Line Press, 2014) was a finalist in their national competition. Other poems have appeared in many journals, such as Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Folio, JAMA, Gargoyle, The Little Patuxent Review, and in several anthologies. Stein co-edited Cabin Fever, a poetry anthology (The Word Works, 2004), holds an MFA from the University of Iowa, and has taught Creative Writing in colleges and high schools.