Like my fish to die overnight.
can’t stand to see them suffer,
then go white belly up.
He doesn’t look good, he’s old,
should I feed him, I wonder.
If you have to die, please do it
when I am not around.
Like the birds.
I go to bed pretending
don’t know you are sick
then find your feet
up stiff in the morning
like a teenage boy.
Maybe you die on a weekend
and I can bury you
before the rest of the house wakes.
Losing B.O.B., I’m sure.
He’s quite likely – No! Undoubtedly –
among the top two gold fish of all time.
There was Fishy in North Carolina,
obviously special.
Had a bit of Zombie Shark about him.
B.O.B. was named, of course,
after the rap star.
Mega pimp, super clean,
the coolest in the universe
Niggas hating on what he doing
just mad cause they ain’t do it first
You can always get a new fish
but you can’t get a new fish with history.
Give him a massage
through the aquarium glass.
and mimic his mouth movements
like we are having an actual conversation.
Old and sick, the fish tells me. Sick and old.
and I tell him. listen, you motherfucker,
you have to outlive me
because I can’t take much more of this.
You know how many birds
are buried in the flower garden?
And then there’s the little white puppy
under the hibiscus.
Meanwhile the old dog barks
at nothing in particular.
I think B.O.B. was five or six years old. Actually seemed like he had a personality. He’d been at Death’s Door twice and twice Mrs. Welch had brought him back from the brink. Three times, now that I think about it. She gave him CPR once. Another time he turned an inky black and, well, thank goodness for Google and a smart bride. B.O.B. grew to be huge. Seems a goldfish can meld into a carp if he has room to expand and is well fed. My creatures never miss a meal.
He was alone in the aquarium because a couple of years ago, there was a short in the filter. The water heated and heated and heated overnight and in the morning, all the fish had been boiled alive.
Except one. B.O.B. was buried this morning in a place of honor, the other end of the hibiscus. He’ll be missed.
– JDW