Skip to content →

POEM: Swedish fish

Swedish fish

I bought Swedish fish at Wegmans.
Do people still call them that?
The little gummy fish.
Mine are red but they come in other colors.
When I was a kid, my dad would take me
to a little mom-and-pop candy shop.
We’d buy a bag of fish, then go home
to watch the Saturday afternoon monster movie.
Sometimes it would be a classic:
Dracula, The Wolfman, Frankenstein.
More often it was giant irradiated bugs
or a disembodied hand or aliens
who looked goofy even in the 70s.
If I’m honest, I bought the fish tonight
because I miss having parents, but
Swedish fish are no replacement
for a mom and dad.

/ / /

31 May 2023
Charlottesville VA

Published in Family My poems Poetry

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.