Ode to the Fish

We have two fish: Mr. Fish and Mister Fish. Mr. Fish is a big, fat, fantail and Mister Fish is a black moor who has a swim bladder condition that causes him to spend most of his day floating upside down. When people come to visit, we have to explain to them up front that Mister Fish is not dead, just resting until he regains his equilibrium. I don’t know what is more sad: Mister Fish floating helplessly while being pelted by the water flowing from the filter, or Mister Fish trying in vain to swim down to the bottom for a morsel of food, only to have to give up and pop to the surface like a cork in the ocean.

Anyway, I started to write a song about our fish, which is an offshoot of a song our daughter, Carsyn, made up one afternoon in the car, titled, “Old Darn Fish.” It goes like this:

Old Darn Fish, Everytime our eyes meet
Old Darn Fish, They want something to eat
Old Darn Fish, One swims upside down
Old Darn Fish, While the other swims around

I know, pretty bad. Today, something happened that prompted me to scrap the song and write a short children’s story instead. Here goes:

Two fish—Mr. Fish and Mister Fish—lived together in a spacious albeit sometimes untidy aquarium. Somedays, Mister Fish would get this strange sensation that caused him to float upside down while Mr. Fish just kept on swimming, swimming, swimming, never offering him any help.

To most people, Mister Fish looked dead, but he wasn’t. Until one day, he was.

The end.

I would like to say that Mr. Fish misses Mister Fish, but so far he has said nothing of the sort and continues to swim around as if nothing is wrong. Go figure.