The Space Between Two Fishes Poem by Alexandre Nodopaka

The man sits still before the apparent
tranquility of his aquariums. He estimates
the variable space that separates each set
of fishes in his eight tanks as if

they contained flexible liquid intelligence.
He chose that number of fish tanks
because of the symbolic significance
of infinity as when the digit eight is laid

in a prone position. In his mind that stanza
reminds him of eternity as we lay down
for our last rest. He carefully analyzes
the expanding and contracting distances

between the fishes and concludes
it is a distance that appears dynamic
only because of his spatial mathematical
conceit.

Once upon a time as he was driving
he recalls being terrified. In a split
moment he saw himself infinitely small
in an infinitely large pulsating universe.

In that instant he realized
that the molecules circulating in his veins
were similar to the movement of the stars
in the cosmos and that in fact that space

was filled with a vaster emptiness
than the sum total of its black holes
and streaming bolides. In fact, his fish
are going nowhere, he concludes.

With that in mind he picks up his pen
and mumbles to himself, It's not my fault
for being a poet and starts writing,
The space between two fishes...