Hege Jakobsen Lepri
Knife
Watching my Dad
cleaning fish
I want to hold
a sharp knife before
it is too late to learn
his skills. Sever
the gut, separate
heads from the fish
sacrifice skin
and bone to the seagulls.
I want to sense
if my hands can hear
the lilting song of the blade
the rhythm of certainty
white flesh so perfectly clean
exposed and ready for us
my wrists finally proving
they too know this
ancient dance.
From a safe distance
I count the years we have
until all starts slipping
and I must gut my own fish
leaving half the skeleton
jagged edges
showing where
I missed my moment.
cleaning fish
I want to hold
a sharp knife before
it is too late to learn
his skills. Sever
the gut, separate
heads from the fish
sacrifice skin
and bone to the seagulls.
I want to sense
if my hands can hear
the lilting song of the blade
the rhythm of certainty
white flesh so perfectly clean
exposed and ready for us
my wrists finally proving
they too know this
ancient dance.
From a safe distance
I count the years we have
until all starts slipping
and I must gut my own fish
leaving half the skeleton
jagged edges
showing where
I missed my moment.
Biography
Hege Jakobsen Lepri is a Norwegian-Canadian translator and writer. She had her first story published in English in 2013 and that has since been her writing language. Though she's primarily a prose writer, her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in untethered, Prism International, Haiku journal, Under the Basho, Anti-Heroin Chic, Better than Starbucks, Watch your Head and Burning House Press. She has also been part of The Emerging Writers Reading Series in Toronto. You find her at www.hegeajlepri.ca
