Poem of the Day: “Herman, The Sturgeon” by Tricia Knoll, Frequent Contributor and Poet of the Week

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “Herman, The Sturgeon” by Tricia Knoll, a Songs of Eretz Frequent Contributor and this week’s Poet of the Week.  A biography of the poet may be found in the “About Our Editor & Frequent Contributors” section.

Herman, The Sturgeon

Tricia Knoll

My palms press against the thick glass wall

between me and Herman. I nudge in

next to three young girls with ponytails.

Herman glides, a profile of fossils.

The sign to my left:

         Species:           acipenser transmontanus (Pacific Sturgeon) – the largest freshwater fish in North America                 

         Age:                70 plus years, born during World War II

         Eyes:                Steel gray

         Length:            Ten feet

         Weight:            450 pounds

         Genealogy:       Species to 175 million years ago

         Residence:        Bonneville Fish Hatchery on the Columbia River –– since 1998 captive in a man-made pool fed by Tanner Creek and groundwater. One Herman or another has circled this pool for over sixty years. 

           

The blonde mother distracts her kids with goldfish crackers.

I’ve got the window.

Does Herman see my hands splayed on the glass?

Am I as irrelevant to him as barnacles

crusted on the container ships on the Columbia

heading through Bonneville’s locks to Lewiston?

Does his brain sense how near his river is?

How high the wall to the upper Columbia?

I lean in as if to weigh the theft

of his wild identity, this land-locked fish.

Does he always swim clockwise?

Ignoring cycles of spawning?

His eyes give away nothing.

Bottom dweller. Four barbell sensors,

armored scutes. Yet – a brain that integrates.

My blessing to this fish

through my hands, through the glass.

Does he feel how my laying-on pulses the water?

Bless his terrible beauty.

Poet’s Notes:  I believe the Columbia River Gorge is one of the wonders of the world. I lament the loss of Celilo Falls and centuries of petroglyphs under Bonneville Dam. Other losses include robust fish migrations. Herman is a real fish (pictured), a humongous fish, incarcerated for his lifetime in a small pond at a hatchery as a tourist attraction.