Tuesday, June 8, 2010

In which the fish speaks on her exhibition and two small scraps of home





The fish has been unable to write:
Perhaps there are still folks who call by this quiet place, and, finding it empty, move on?
So here are some times in the 
life of the fish, in the event I can induce you to stay a moment.




Exhibition (1)





It was a rather big job to suddenly have to empty out my nest








and take it somewhere new





and hang it up, all in the light rather than in stacks around the wall.
    

after two days it was nearly done.


Upon which a herd of dogs raced in to see what was going on.
Either that or they knew there as a fish in the vicinity: you know what dogs are like.



Domestics (1)


Upon receiving a note such as this one that I was given 





one might be forgiven for puzzlement.
Unless you knew that the writer of the note
had been reading the Aberdeen Bestiary
and you knew it meant "good luck mum"
in an obscur and little-known dialect.


The above author also penned the following advice




To
Let you spirit Sore


I will try my best...












Exhibition (2)


At last the fish has hung the paintings up on the wall
in the sea-grotto
with the shiny white floor.
And look, someone has come early.
                                                

It's Constantine.


                                        

Here is Constantine and the fish about a century ago
at another of the fish's exhibition openings
only about 200m away from where this years one is held.
My, we look different.
Well the fish does. 
Annoyingly, Constantine does not.


Here is a local who makes the fish laugh, and on doing so, laughs himself.
So we all laugh loudly and it rings in the grotto. 
Even Div laughs out there in the street.


and it continues.
The hour before a show opens is not much fun. It is usually as quiet and scary as anything you can imagine.
I m glad Div and Con have come early. 
But Div is not good on advising me on how to do my hair.



It gets dark


                               


And the fish swims in the grotto
and waits for guests to arrive.

         

*




Domestics (2)


My daughter has issues at present. 

She is 16.
It seems she has often has issues
 but at the moment, it is quite distressing.
I develop anxiety pains at times like this,
when things seem to overwhelm me.
She seemed so distressed it got me wondering
what I would have done if she were a small girl.
In fact I looked at a photo of her as a little gitl and wondered where on earth 
her baby face had got to, but there you go.
If she were small I would have cuddled her up in bed with a story.


So that is what I have done, cuddled her up in bed with a story, 
which means I have to go to bed early and I bundle her up in my bed 
and I read to her. I cram her and her puffy tear stained face and her smeary make up 
and her big limbs into my bed and give her a bit of a pat on the back for a while and then read.
She thinks its very funny, and she thinks the story is boring.
But I pin her down tightly and I read a chapter of The Water Babies every night. 
Persistently.
She falls asleep very quickly, in fact, I had to prise open one of her eyeballs last night and hold up the book closely
because she was going to miss the picture of Tom
 with the beautiful Water Fairy. 

Already she looks a lot better.
In fact she laughed when I marched into her room, turned off her computer 
and said story time
 instead of screaming at me, and she trotted on into my bed.
and curled up ready for the book.
She later said it was the most
silly story ever.


but the cats thought this was a grand idea too.


Her father does not like this at all.
He has been banished to her bed
and his feet get tangled in her wrought iron bedstead.
But look
I say,
You can see the improvement.
Indeed, she looks much better, with roses in her cheeks and 
at least I know she is not on chat all night
or crying
till after midnight.

Her father says
I think I'll have to get her a bigger bed.

I say
Good idea.


*




Sea






and all the while





the fish swims in the vasty ocean:
where the fish belongs.