One Afternoon in the New York Fish Market

"The fish is talking" screamed Nivelo,

Not knowing now what to do with the knife.

Rosen says today "Ah, enough already about the fish"

But then, right then, he dropped the phone and ran to see

And saw the carp, already lifted out of the ice-box

And seconds away from the rubber-hammered end of all time,

Speaking clearly, in Hebrew:

"Tzaruch shemirah. Hasof bah."

Get it together kids, this is it.

Pray. Repair and pray, the end is here.

Zalmen didn't agree that it had happened at all,

But Nivelo had slid down the wall onto the slimy floor

From the horrible might of a carp speaking so plainly.

And, admittedly, Nivelo did not speak Hebrew at all

By all reports, but Rosen did, and anyway a talking fish is a talking fish,

And the spirit of God is not something small.

Cory Kilgannon of the New York Times reported in March 2003 that

"The fish flopped off the counter and back into the carp box

And was butchered by Nivelo and sold."

So, maybe not exactly news. Maybe just a story, a sly indication,

But if there's news in it, it's that Nivelo and Rosen and Zalmen

And God

Aren't sure.