Stagnation Poem by Charl JF Cilliers

In the casual ripples
of the stream a fish’s eye
like a pursed nipple
drifts, staring at the sky.

At the conjunctions
of small green patches of slime
the body of the dead fish
follows, spinning all the time

on its axis like an obsessive wish.
Spins round and round without a sound.

The sluggish green water, no breeze
stirring the sky-green canopy.

In a soundless twilight of trees
where the dead eye stares fixedly but cannot see.