Hi Jesse -

As it happens I wrote 2 fish poems just recently:

Poisson

le poisson la position le ptombeau
la partition le pointilon la puration
le pourquoi la pmaison le ptomaine
la pancarte le pantalon la page
le pense-bête la pénurie le pédéraste
la paine le poulpe la portête
la portet le pulp la pane
le pederaste la penury le pens-beet
la page le pant-along la pancake
le ptomaine la maze le porkrot
la puration le point thong la partition
le tumble la position le poison

Fish Fish

fish fish poison poison hand hand it it
hand hand wet wet went went hor hor
went went lug lug pry pry hook hook
pry pry dance dance dunce dunce he he
dunce dunce chug chug dry dry sea sea
dry dry ant ant peel peel new new
peel peel bore bore blew blew sat sat
blew blew fed fed gunk gunk nit nit
gunk gunk sky sky rash rash blood blood
rash rash drop drop pile pile drool drool
pile pile bone bone shoe shoe gut gut
shoe shoe lunk lunk eat eat sent sent
eat eat eye eye egg egg fin fin
egg egg glottal glottal fish fish glue glue

Dr. John M. Bennett
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Just a note to friends and well-wishers that Braincap, my eight year old Kyushu goldfish and the partner of my midnight ramblings has shaken off this mortal coil and has ascended to wherever it is the metaphysical portion of good fishes go. He (I truly believe it was a he, though sometimes I wondered), showed me that goldfish could truly be peaceful, thoughtful, planetary beings. In fact, as Braincap assumed his adult proportions (about 10 inches in length, four in girth), he reminded me of a dugong, with that same kind of “easy does it” manner; in addition he and his friends Biggie and Abc-sama all reminded me of a herd of little cows grazing on the stones of their near-industrial sized aquarium.

Braincap was born in Fukuoka prefecture, and came as a group of six tiny fish that my son won at a temple matsuri (festival) in July of that long-ago time, just north of the year 2000. We decided to purchase a small plastic aquarium and introduced a bubble stone to keep the crew happy. Little did we know that these little fish would thrive and come with us by plane to our new home near Tokyo, and that they would stick with us to calm us and cheer us up through good times and through bad.

Braincap was the most gifted of the crew. He recognized his name, watched CNN with me and offered passable commentary–at times blazingly intelligent commentary–on global warming and other subjects of vital concern. He did a great imitation of George W. Bush (fool me once…)and predicted that Weapons of Mass Destruction would never be found. When Hillary began her run he (or was it she?) swam hot and cold. Braincap was definitely for a woman running for office, but maybe just not that woman. I’m happy to add that Braincap was an Obama supporter, a tradition that he began and now that I and the whole Ahadada group maintain.

Braincap is survived by his spawn-mates Biggie (pushing 11 inches, 4 inches girth) and Abc-sama, and the Glass family of Shin-Urayasu. Tributes in experimental, conceptual, and visual poetries would be greatly appreciated. Post them to this list, or back-channel and we’ll put the best up on the ahadada books website.

Thanks,

Jesse