EVERYONE BEGINS AS FISH & Poem by Mario Petrucci

ends so - spiralling after
egg (that other half of our
chains) & setting gills

in gristled knot that buds
legs as tadpoles do & blow-
hole ears halfway down

the back & low-set eye
alien as featherless chick -
ah we have peered into

that shared ovum whose
blasto-flesh runs its gauntlet
of fowl & fish so fused at

the tail nothing can be told
apart - is this why when i am
late i find in upstairs dark

you - on placenta duvet &
hunched round self as wom-
bed ones are? - as though

i had just returned from
all eternity to catch you
naked out sleepwalking

space without even
navel-twisted purpled
rope to hold you