AQUARIA...............................................................................................................................................................RUTH ROUFF

Aquaria

Poem by Ruth Rouff

I had this idea I would write about the old aquarium in Camden, not the new. The old one had indigenous fish that live in the slate grey waters off New Jersey-the kind few deigned to see.

That is why they renovated the place. Set aside or killed the flounder and bass and bluefish you might just as soon find on a dinner plate as in a tank and replaced them with tropicals: floating mosaics from a Byzantine ceiling.

These are the creatures people pay to see. Now the turnstiles are humming and I find myself viewing delicate beauties, as well as sharks swimming overhead, rambunctious penguins, and one lone alligator lying in a tiled tank, waiting, as we all are, for something

good.

SUMMER TEXTING by LAURA RUTHERFORD RENNER