Goin to the Aquarium

5x7 acrylic on canvas board

At the Aquarium of the Pacific by Craig Erick Chaffin
I saw this poem on www.famouspoetsandpoems.com

I saw a brilliant angelfish whose tail

and fins shimmered yellow until it turned

and silver spread like an undercoat of fur

when stroked against the nap, across its scales.

Black as caviar and rimmed with gold,

its eyes, though flat as dimes, looked deep as wells.

The clownfish cruising by above the shells,

its idiotic smile painted bold,

passed disinterested as if it’d seen

it all before. Maybe. But I've heard

fish see only black-and-white,

so why this purple puffer and iridescent green

parrot fish-- and for whom? It's absurd

to credit chance. Either for us or for the light.