Swish swish, da fish swim in da lake
The water is blue like the sky on a Monday
But also on a Wednesday
While it will rain on Tuesday
Although it will rain fish
As it happens sometime in da dasert
But da fish no care about the sky
Da fish care about zee worms and zee zooplankton
Da fish swim fast like the speed of thought
Though the thoughts are fishy thoughts:
We know the sound of two fish is swish!
But what is the sound of one fish?
Lake is a mirror
Fish is a reflection
A reflection of what?
I am not a fish
said da fish
am I a swimming dream?
Fish is a question
Lake is an answer
Fish is an equation
If F(ish)=0, then return lake
Then take the first one right
and you will get there
There, where?
Da fish swim in circles
Circles of life
Life is a circle
of what?
I swish I sknew
And yet, da fish is free
Free to swim, free to swish
Da fish jump again
The water is disturbed
Disturbed like the mind
The mind of the water
Out of your mind?
Out of the water?
Da fish disappear
Disappear like magic
Magic of da lake
Swish! go da fish
Da fish in da lake
Is like a fish in a soup
A fish soup that forgot
Forgot its own recipe:
Add a pinch of salt
and da lake is an ocean
Da fish swims in spirals,
then in parentheses (like this)
and then {like that}
Swishing into da ocean
Forget da lake
This story has no moral. Only da fins.

Paolo Pergola is the author of Reset (Sagging Meniscus, 2021), Passaggi—avventure di un autostoppista (Rides: The Adventures of a Hitchhiker) (Exorma, 2013) and Attraverso la finestra di Snell (Through Snell’s Window) (Italo Svevo Edizione, 2019). His work has appeared in several Italian literary magazines. He is a member of OPLEPO/Opificio di Letteratura Potenziale (Workshop of Potential Literature), Italy’s equivalent of France’s OULIPO. He lives in Tuscany and works as a zoologist.