Alas, Bubbles

You were named after the Finding Nemo character

The yellow tang from Australia

As you were both the same species

Where he liked bubbles, hence your name

You liked swimming at the front of the big tank

Whose clear face was frequently algae’d

The other fish seemed to ignore you

You were alone, the clownfish and the blue fish

Had their pairs

But you, like the giant grey brittle-star that I term

The Kraken

Were single, on your own alienated, by yourself

You were see-through, most days

Not your personality, but your electric yellow body

We could see the gravel in your belly

And remarked that it was creepy, weird

It was strange, one day

When your folded crest sprung up overnight

The one beneath your tail too

We wondered if you were sick or feeling amorous

We joked that you were gay

The research I did turned up nothing

And you soon returned to normal

Your crests folded against your body

We thought you fine, and that it was a stroppy phase

We came back to college after the February half-term

You were absent from the tank

We thought that maybe you were hiding behind

The black rocks that are the scenery

Gradually your stripy friends emerged from the gloom

A splotch of orange here, a blue blur there

However, you did not

It was James who finally noticed you

He though you were a tissue that was floating by

Only then did he realise that it was you, Bubbles

Dead, and cannibalised by your neighbours

Some people were squeamish, nauseated

Others, like he who found you, were morbid

My friend and I chorused “We told you he was ill!”

Sir looked upset, and he fished you out

When the class refused to concentrate or be quiet

You were just scales and bones with one eye

And you met an ignoble disposal

In the cubby hole between classrooms

You were the only yellow tang in that tank

The colour in the dark dullness

Of the geology aquarium

RIP Bubbles??-19/2/2007