My Aquarium

i used to admire my brother who had aquariums of fishes outside the garage and in our rooms, fishes that swam through every phase of our teenage years now another of his fruitful hobbies steals our sights, breath and hearts he keeps a garden of orchids, many he fervently crossed breed himself with a secret wish to name a few at least after his sweet heart, special friends and luminaries in town with also the hope some would make their way into every florist's vocabulary the blade leafy shrubs have started to make a cut into the finer part of our life showering us dainty fair ladies in their best wear i am always at a loss of their names those protrusions with an array of flowers of subtle shapes, racy exploding colours and scents carrying apt names such as slippers, tigers, spiders monkeys, giants and lady Joaquim and fishes, he had silver and gold arowanas that flial in the aquariums with a grace that you wish your girlfriend can match up to and oscars that grew so big a solid orange and black frame they carried the aura of a master an air of authority and decisiveness you wish you had cultivated to swim up the heart of your own boss then there is the ikan parang, a worn curved chopper, a steely mass of the Creator's fluid creativity played out in crystal clear water as i reflect on my own aquariums i feel not slighted too though i have no real fishes or flowers i see them in names like neruda, plath, emily, angelou, ted, langston.... they too help send me to seventh heaven with a few strokes of their heartstrings filled with the vibrancy and gems of their grey matter