Feeding frenzy

A cosmopolitan population of aquatic beasts dwells in the gardens' larger water bodies, which also confine a handful of swans with mute wings and rude appetites. Frugivorous characids the size of a sack of potatoes patrol the murky pools alongside schools of tilapines and thick-lipped gouramis. Siamese rasboras and Sumatran barbs hug the shallower fringes, which also serve as territories for neotropical cichlids that have outgrown the affections of their owners. Oriental cyprinids add a dash of gold and red to this dull blend, while giant snakeheads lurk in midwater to eliminate the possibility of nesting fowl. New World poeciliids occupy the green-grey space in between the larger swimmers, feeding and fornicating at a rate that ensures the survival of their kind in a habitat of ecological disharmony.

Amid this menagerie paddle turtles from North America and China, which owe their freedom to kind souls who unleashed the responsibility of their care to mother nature without asking if she'd buckle under the burden. Foreign bullfrogs, too, have found a convivial nest in the gardens' ponds, thanks to the devotion of families who revel in blessed ignorance and refuse to see the risks they pose to the health of their home and the future of their heritage.

A father and his brood had gathered on the walkway between the exposed lake, which is ringed in its entirety by a concrete bank, and a subsidiary which has been permitted to nurse a broken wall of shrubs and marshland plants. The sire held in his hand a canister of granulated feed and swaggered between the railings, pouring liberal servings of red and green pellets into the water, which boiled with a flurry of gaping maws. Foot-long walking catfish dominated the scene, twisting and thrusting scaleless bodies in striking numbers that suggest a successive wave of introductions. Sensing a free lunch, a swan crashed the party, encouraging the man to empty the package to the delight of his troops. The animals feast and the people laugh, imagining this to be an idyll where men in their pride and wisdom bestow largesse upon simpler creatures that’d otherwise wither and waste away in a wilderness of recreated dreams.

Comments

[Anna Tambour]

To my favourite writer of any in the world, and my all-time favourite thinker and commentator about the relationship between all living things, AND to a true foodie to whom food and eating is part of the world around, and of a life that isn't being just a consumer or a dumber-than-real-life sponge, AND to a marvelous poet who is brave enough to include puns, and to a marvelous wordsmith who makes all your writing a pleasure of a poem to read, thank you for all the generosity you have shown over the years, to say what you do and show us what you show. I haven't said this on your blog before, but you still are a model of what a blog creator can be, more worthy than the quoted pundits of our age and someone worth quoting in any age. And a thinker who still awes me with your wit. I would have said it again these past days in my blog, but the superlatives choked me. How I feel about your observations just sounds like pr. It is, however, the bald truth.