FRANKS

Maureen Littlejohn

Inspired by John Dos Pasos

His shop is on Broadway, way, way north at 181st Street. Paddytown turned little DR.. Frank's Fish. An old Irish rock in a Spanish sea. Frank with thick white hair and pulpy bright nose, ex-cop anchored in the family business, newspaper story on the wall. Slippery pale flesh lies on chipped ice. Narrow strip of a store. All tile. Yellowed. Wet. Glistening. Juan the helper, slight smiling brown-skinned boy rushing, weighing, hosing down the floor. Cod, scrod, salmon, mackerel, herring, snapper. Dead flat eyes, silvery skin, mouths agape. Whole sleek bodies, size of a hand, size of a shin. Flayed, slimy, white, viscous and cool. Ripe stink of sea flesh.