fact: a fish bit my father's nipple
fact: a small fish
fact: his right nipple
fact: swimming at night in Lake Ontario
fact: not a rhino's tender motions at chest level
fact: not grey lips moist, wistful eyes
fact: not Lake Huron
question: and me?
        swimming beside him, not thinking

facts to date: 6
questions: 1

        it became my job to write this down, to write a report,
        a novel, a journal entry, an account in simple terms

fact: there was no swelling
fact: also no pain
question: has this happened before?

        once with forceps he had to remove a key that somehow
        dropped inside my cello, late at night, my mother
        watching, he just back from the hospital

fact: i paid cash for my son's circumcision
fact: the procedure was later explained with the aid of a fist
        and a shirt sleeve
fact: multiple interpretations of the fishbite are possible
question: was my father Jesus, the fish the Catholic Church?

        can his nipple be construed as the source of my troubles?
        clarification: here i do not refer to the nipple of Jesus

fact: the drywall finally giving way, an electric eel
        burst from the blue wall above us at the exact
        moment when naked my wife and i were about to
        reach the last page of Russell Hoban's Turtle Diary
fact: the book begins with a dream of an octopus
fact: we were soaked by the water that gushed with the eel
        from the wallfact: after that experience, i shall have to think about
        having children

        i don't really know whether it was his right or his left nipple
        it is my duty to record the event
        if it had been a rhino, it would not have been underwater
        it would not have burst forth from the wall
        a shared instant of understanding, my father and the rhino
        on the short scrub of the plain
        if it had been my mother, everything would be different

fact: a fish bit my mother's nipple
fact: a small fish
fact: we needn't go on
        for that see 'The Rocks at the Bottom of the Lake'
        by David McFadden
        and i too have lived in Hamilton, Ontario
        but do not confuse autobiographical details with the author

- right Mom? -

fact: in the past i've written many haiku
fact: that night a frog jumped into Lake Ontario
fact: not however making any contact with my father,
        save for the mutual perception of the ambient plash
        the mutual perception of that moment when
        the frog falls into the water's jaws
        the fish bites my father
        the eel lands on my wife's legs and she realizes that she will
        be unable to finish Turtle Diary

fact: as found as graffiti on a bathroom wall
summary: my father's nipple made me responsible

facts: 22
questions: 4