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| February 14th, 2000 | |||
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Aquarium by John Engels
Excerpt from: Big Water
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I hadn't touched it for months, the water had long cleared itself, the plants flourished and thickened, and at the end of my room seemed another room pouring out light. Daily the red oranda came up for food, likewise the bubble eye, ryunkin, black dragon eye. But something began to go wrong - quite suddenly one of the buffalohead, though desparate to feed, could not swim up from the bottom, and the great calico veiltail as I watched capsized, and swam upside down no matter what I did
to the beautiful water, changed it, warmed it, cooled it
the aquarium, brightened it
About John EngelsJohn Engels has taught English Literature at St. Michaels's College in Winooski, Vermont for many years. He is the author of five books of poetry, including The Homer Mitchell Place, Vivaldi in Early Fall, and Weather-Fear, for which he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is recognized as one of America's finest poets. He lives in Burlington, Vermont.
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