AQUARIUM AT NHA TRANG
A round, smooth concrete basin
painted white and filled to the brim:
giant crabs covered in sea-moss,
stingrays, sometimes a dolphin,
three slender reef sharks,
spiraling prisms of fish.
They charge admission,
let you clamber down to the edge
and shake a turtle’s leathery fin.
Next door, on the wind-worn dock,
a restaurant where you order lunch
pointing: a net lowers deftly into the pool
for your choice, still shivering saltwater.
At dawn the fishing boats thread back
to fill the sands with black-eyed shrimp,
lobster, jagged knots of seaweed,
retreating again with the tide.
The open water, they say, holds
unimagined creatures. New treasures
like shreds of twisted steel and glass
glinting just beyond the edge of vision.
from Breaking the Map (Blue Begonia Press, 2009)
