Fish in a paddy field

SoulReserve

words, familiar,
catch on the tessellating 
susurrating fragments
of her fluid mind. like fish 
in a paddy field, 

she is mindlessly adrift, 
drifting within the corridors
of half-eaten, half-
-nibbled-on words with a smooth,
gliding motion.

the tender-green sprigs of rice
lie submerged inside amber water.
stagnant, clouded with faint memories 
that become living streams, alive
with yesterday’s echoes 

caught in forgotten nets, like 
fish squirming. bodies shimmering in 
sunlight, fighting
against the odd chance that she 
may remember,  

limbless thoughts. like fish
in a paddy field. stagnant amber water
that catches the sun. there isn't
anywhere to go darting between 
sprigs of paddy

and the mouth of the child
who sleeps with her eyes open. 
dreamless, she forgets again
and drifts, fluid in the stagnant water
without a current.

disjointed parts of her
float. like a reflection that the 
muddy water may carry before a fish 
breaks the surface to feed 
in a splash.

Dedicated to my distant aunt who suffered from Alzheimer’s. She remembered, forgot and died countless times. But she always went back to the paddy field.

SoulReserve is a wistful poet. Her poetry explores love and its tumultuousness, fantasy and zest in nature, and allegories that provoke thought and evoke tender feelings. Read her published works in – “Across Vast Horizons”, “Poetry d’Amour – 2019 & 2020”, “Letters To Our Home”, “Recoil 12”, “Blue Bottle Journal” and “Creatrix.”