Puffer Fish

you had that salt water tank,

remember? in your living room,

in the old house on spring street.

when I first saw that puffer, I asked

why you put a poisonous fish

in with the others.

the puffer was cute, you said,

it looked like you and hovered

at the center of the tank.

you said he didn’t bother them

and they didn’t bother him,

they all just swam around.

one night, after dinner,

in the tank, that puffer

started moving funny.

you screamed at your step-kids,

your 2^nd wife, they all ran

to find a net to fish him out.

I watched as he kind of did

an underwater herky-jerky dance

and rose belly-up to the surface.

in only moments, seconds,

the other fish in the tank

did that same dance and died.

after you picked up your drug habit

had step kids in rehab, got divorced,

got arrested for grand theft,

a remembrance of other fish

dying when the puffer died

is why I said you were toxic.