following the fish

following the fish

we snorkeled at Cistern Point

off Cooper Island

a rocky little island reef

with a large fish habitat on the lee side

parrot fish, tiger fish,

many more I can’t name

suddenly I spot a school

of small round black-and-blue fish

hundreds of them

moving lazily through the water below

grazing on plants and bottom weeds —

in the shadow they appear

to be a mass of black bubbles

but in the sunlight

their tails and backs throw off

flashes of electric blue

stopping to feed

they look rather like a garden

of my mother’s purple pansies

planted deep on the ocean floor

every shade from black and midnight purple

to indigo, violet and royal blue

we swim for half an hour

hovering soundlessly above them

following their path

through rocky underground canyons

and shallow reef coral

sometimes they are twenty feet down

sometimes just below the surface

it is intimate

in an extraordinary way

to swim with these strange and beautiful creatures

as if perhaps we are spying uninvited

on their private lives

but they do not seem to mind

and proceed about their business

with no acknowledgment

that we are even there

thursday 16 february

2017 after epiphany

Manchioneel Bay, Cooper Island