Skip to main content

24. Shark Fin Soup

Inspiration: Geography class :) Have you ever heard of shark fin soup? I have, and I've tried it before, and I must admit it's quite tasty. But, after learning how it's MADE, I feel very bad for eating it : In the Pacific, surrounding Taiwan and China, fishers hunt for sharks. They don't just kill the poor things, no...they SLAUGHTER them. They hook them on a line or net, drag them to the surface, cut the poor thing's fins off, and release the finless shark into the water to drown. Bastards! My guilt is extreme. Well, almost as extreme as this screwed up poem.

December 24, 2008- Olga Taratuta

Born in the Pacific
Off the coast of Taiwan
I'm just a guiltless gulper shark
I haven't done anything wrong

I'm simply touring the ocean
Prying tuna when I feel my belly grumble
When fatigued, I doze in a local cove
I am mellow and quite humble

I'll never forget my very first love
With a stunning shark, so divine
We swam the ocean, side by side
Among vast reefs, she is mine

The eggs hatched a few months ago
I love all of them; all twenty-five
My gills inhale the sweet, pure water
I'm just so glad to be alive

As I am snoozing, a net is cast over my head
I am in agony; my fins are gone!
Evil men have stolen my pride
Blood stains the blue water, clear as dawn

I cannot swim, I cannot think
I'm drowning; my senses droop
I am begging you, don't end my life
For a bowl of shark fin soup

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happiness is Pink Jellybeans

Happiness is jumping in a pool of pink jellybeans Feeling the cool candy on my skin Happiness is enjoying the pleasures of life Without worrying about confessing my sins Whoever said that we are gluttons For biting juicy pears on the beach Must never have felt the sand in their toes They must have placed their own soul out of reach And what about greed? It's not all that bad To bury a pile of chestnuts for the spring All animals do it, so why shouldn't we? If it's greedy to love yourself, let it be Lust is the one that makes pastors blush Yet it's one of the greatest joys in the body A kiss and a dance, laughter and romance Why did we ever label this happiness as naughty? Have you ever seen a cat sad when it naps? It is okay to sometimes be lazy The body needs rest as does the mind Or the world will set fire from the crazy If happiness is a sin, then let me smile in hell Looking up at the do-gooders above For to live is to err, to cry, and to sing Happiness is pink jell...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lost in Rio

Jesus looks over The lost souls and bones below In the jungle sun To witness such beauty And such devastation God painted with one brushstroke Merry men sing Holes in their shoes The dark night lit up By police sirens And the crescent moon Bats flail around Like me, lost in the jungle Eyes glaring all around I hope they're monkeys Or jaguars I hope I can keep a piece of This country with me Safe in my pocket It smells like tropical rain And feels like The clam shells Washed up on the shore It tastes like fried bananas And heavily salted steak Sounds like seabirds cawing Samba on the streets And looks like a page From a storybook About parrots and palm trees Of finding a golden treasure A magnificent, uneasy place When she sun goes down So do we Leaving the night  To the creepy crawlers And innocent stray cats
Post a Comment
Read more

I See the Fire

Every time I close my eyes, I see the fire That aches where you burned me last I am a woman of the earth and the cool soil Where life ferments and earthworms roam I can't survive the lava that pulses beneath The crust of this beautiful land Yellow dandelions piercing the grass Emerald pockmarked with gold I wish sometimes that I wasn't a woman of the earth I wish that I were stronger I wish that my bones were made of steel And my heart of flame So that I wouldn't fall apart at every Crude remark, every Light tug, every Covert attack That rolls off the back of a fire-woman Instead, my skin is transluscent  Like the morning dew  My muscles pieced together With tree sap and mushrooms What's an earth-woman to do In a world engulfed by fire? But root herself firmly to one place Grow a network of twisting underground limbs And create a stable home To escape the chaos of this world
Post a Comment
Read more