My Sestina

One day Mrs. Elliott asked us to write six words on our paper.  Me being myself decided to make these words really random.  One thing led to another, namely my sestina, "A Lesson":

For dinner I catch a fish
Fresh from the lake.
Before traveling home.
I will cook it on the fire
With no fear of an alien,
For it is not the night.

I mustn't fear the night.
They are so odd, the fish,
Frantically darting in patterns very alien.
It's said something strange hides at the lake.
I hope it isn't attracted to my fire,
A bright disruption to its home.

Meanwhile I need to go home.
The day is becoming dusky night.
As I sit by my fire
Something stalks my fish.
My meal is desired by an alien.
He can't catch any at the lake.

Why did I travel to the lake?
It doesn't feel like home.
To me it is as alien
as to the sun the night.
It is only full of fish
To be cooked on my fire.

Is there more than cooking on the fire
to the piscine souls populating the lake?
Is food the only meaning of the fish?
Like us they call Earth home.
What is the meaning of life and death, day and night?
Perhaps this is known by the Alien.

From the shadows appears the Alien,
suddenly entering the light of my fire.
My foolishness has troubled him this night.
The Alien doesn't want to eat the fish of the lake.
He teaches me why the lake should be home.
It is the beauty, not the flavor of the fish.

That late night meeting with the Alien
By the lake and my fire
Showed me the importance of the fish to my home.




-C. Gilchrist