A Christmas Grand Guignol in Prague

Two carp.

Two carp biting chunks out of each other

trapped in a small bath tub

Left there for days, ten to be exact,

to eliminate the muddy taste

that bottom feeders often have

Sweet meat for Christmas dinner.

Christmas was coming To Prague

The "Golden City"

that birthed Kafka, and The Golem

The city that Kafka once  called "The little mother with claws."

There was Pani Uteshena, my Ukrainian born landlady

I rented her deceased husband's library

in a sprawling Stalin-era apartment complex

painted in acres and acres of ochre

Mrs Uteshena, the little grandmother with claws

Christmas was coming to Prague.

I saw the signs:  the tubs of live carp

on each street corner.

At home in the U.S. we have over the top 

retina burning displays,
gaudy Christmas colors everywhere.

In Prague,  tubs of live carp.

Red holiday blood splatters the white snow- Ho ho ho!

A burly man will club a carp for you- CRACKKK!

Or you can take it home

and club it yourself

"People don't do that anymore" he said.

I was reassured that I wouldn't find

a surprise in the bathtub

Mrs. Uteshena, though, was a traditionalist.

So for ten reeking days I couldn't shower

Waiting for the day of the carp's reckoning

When the day finally came, I was ready

towel, soap and toothbrush in my hand,  

I waited for a sign

I listened for a sign

Then  a  WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! from behind the door.

I felt like Joan Blondell, who played the fat hooker

in the 60's shocker  film "Lady in a Cage"

when the hoodlums stabbed 

her wino buddy to death

behind the couch where she was seated.

Off-camera violence- WHAP! WHAP! WHAP!

I quickly went to the bath tub, 

rinsed off the remnants

of  the carps' brain and scales

left over from the profuse drubbing

and relished the warm water rushing over me.

Debra Girard, July 8, 2011