Joy to the Fishes

JOY TO THE FISHES

By Steve Kowit

Minnows Photo credit: fine_plan flickr (cc By- NC 2.0)

I hiked out to the end of Sunset Cliffs
& climbed to the breakwater,
sneakers strung over my shoulder
& a small collection of Zen poems
in my fist.
A minnow
that had sloshed out of someone’s bait bucket,
& that I came within an inch of stepping on,
convulsed in agony.
Delighted to assist,
I tossed it back into its ocean:
swirling eddies sucked about the rocks,
white pythagorean sailboats
in the middle distance.
Kids raced the surf,
a labrador brought down a frisbee,
& the sun sank pendulously
over the the Pacific shelf.
I shivered & descended,
slipping the unopened book
into my pocket
& walked south
along the southern California coastline—
all the hills of Ocean Beach
glowing
in the rouged light
of midwinter sunset.
Even now
it pleases me to think
that somewhere
in the western coastal waters off America
that minnow is still swimming.

Steve Kowit was an Ocean Beach poet for many years, a mainstay in Ocean Beach literary circles, a resident of Ebers Street, a lover of cats, a political radical and many other things. In the 1990s Steve moved from OB out to East County. Sadly, he passed in 2015. (See this tribute to his passing.) His poem is reprinted with permission from Sunshine/Noir II Writing from San Diego and Tijuana; Edited by Kelly Mayhew and Jim Miller. This was first published at San Diego Free Press.