Still Life with Fish and Turtle

Every day the turtle returned 

to have her portrait painted 

Seaweed and jelly

Warm rocks of the shore, fish

flopping in and out of the water 

at intervals in order to breathe

The turtle’s thoughtful gaze wasn't hard

to maintain. She felt genuinely amazed 

that some day the spawn of the man 

with the stick tipped in colorful oils

would pace in front of her image

and the fish’s and others’ and argue

over whether such creatures had ever really existed:

men with wings, horses with horns, 

bluebirds, and little aquatic dragons 

wearing armor on their front and back 

which had done so little to protect them

when the deluge came