Fishtail

by David Elsasser

It started with Jonah and his fishy submarine. 
What cushier place than Piscean entrails 
to cruise subsurface currents, relax below the storm, 
and get catapulted into palm-tree paradise? 
Freud saw the erotic aquariums teeming in our heads, 
desires swimming round in a lifetime of loops. 
He knew sex rocks the ship, eros unfurling 
like a spinnaker before the wind. So, leave 
a pinch of ambrosia on the surface for hungry mouths 
and get in the swim.  You can just dip in your pole. 
There’s plenty to catch, no tackle necessary. 
Libido is the leviathan that harpoons you. 
The Great White Mystery spouts in all the world’s oceans. 
But is it deliverance or just some procreative poseur? 
I’m not sure baby, but it’s bigger than both of us. 
There’s Old Reliable now, gushing on the horizon. 
So, man the whaleboats, or just tan your hide 
on the nude beach. But remember Ahab – 
set out to slay lust and it’ll lash you to its back, 
fishtailing through hell, before it drowns you in regret. 
Lose only a leg and you’re lucky. Way smarter 
to let it swallow you whole. Have a transporting experience. 
Jonah relocated to Miami. His dry-goods business is thriving. 

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David Elsasser is the poetry chair of the West Side Arts Coalition. He hosts the Parkside Poets, a weekly peer poetry workshop, and is the author of three poetry chapbooks: Last Call, published 2009 by Poets Wear Prada, Delicious, published 2014 by NoNet Press, and Taking Flight, published 2021 by ParksidePoetsPress. He co-hosted the Saturn Poetry Reading Series from 2002 to 2011.