The Fish Lover Aquariums Poem by Alexandre Nodopaka

This man had a lot of love to spare.

He sprinkled it parsimoniously as if he were peppering his steak.

Just the right thickness between his pinched thumb and forefinger and whenever he missed that precise quantity he dipped his fingers again in the canister.

Amazing how accurate the quantity was.

Like he was an ichthyosaur expert that he wasn't.

It was amazing to see him do the feeding ritual every day.

Twice.

Remarkable because it was compounded with each tank having a different number of fish.

And sizes of the fish and of the tanks.

And besides that because of the number of tanks.

He was practically their god. Their lives depended on him.

He started with one and progressively the number grew to 7. It all was a function of availability and prices at the thrift stores. In effect he bought them all at way less than the price of one medium one.

Two inside in the living room. Two outside on the entry porch
visible from his living room couch facing the six foot glass sliding door.

The TV was slightly off to the right parallel with the indoor aquarium. So when he watched the TV he had also two aquariums to look at. No wonder he was a visual artist.

Three more 50-gallon tanks looped around the L-shaped veranda.

Basically the aquariums were arranged for good viewing.

And it wasn't just that.

Each viewing was granted its respective loge.
Silent operas of sorts