Punishment
On the dock in the little lake in
Wisconsin where we went as kids
we discovered if we took a small
scrape off a wet bar of soap, rolled it
into a ball about the size of a BB and
dropped it in the water a little fish
swimming under the dock quickly
swallowed it, paused, then spit it out –
another small fish would then try the
rejected morsel, spit it out, then a third
would try: this amusement lasted us
maybe ten minutes. I don't recall
ever being punished as a child except
once when our mother heard my sister
and me chanting bad words (did we even
know what they meant? probably heard at
school). She wiped our tongues with a bar
of soap. I wonder what the little fishies
might have said in order to get punished!
2024 Jacqueline Jackson
