The Most Dangerous Fish – Lannie Stabile

When temper swims through a man’s hands, he
     becomes a contaminated stream, growing scales thick
as convenience store bricks. When I was 12, the
     most dangerous fish was a bottle of cheap wallop. Two
bucks for 40 ounces of menace. We young minnows
     thrash our tails against the current, feeling for the dry
bank in our mothers’ river. With gaping lips, we ask,
     Why must we remain belly up? And our mothers answer,
Because we are hooked on weakness. It’s true
     what they say: The last thing a fish notices is water.

Lannie Stabile (she/her) – finalist for the 2019/2020 Glass Chapbook Series and semifinalist for the Button Poetry 2018 Chapbook Contest – has her first published collection, “Little Masticated Darlings,” now out with Wild Pressed Books. Further works are published in Glass Poetry, Pidgeonholes, Okay Donkey, and more. She is a Pushcart nominee.