There's a lifetime to be found in the gaze of a fish.
The eyes of a sturgeon hold a wisdom that even the oldest man could not begin to comprehend. They are ancient beasts, with spindles of skin that fold and bend across their flank, needled faces pointed and caustic as they dart through the Columbia River.
There is a fear to be had when you, by mishap, wade next to one. An accidental strike by these monsters is hard enough to kill. It's large—giant, colossal— and even those words seem to underestimate its bulk. It's easily double your size, ten times your weight, and there is a brief, gripping panic that swells in your throat as you stare at its gray back.
But, even despite your base instinct that barks out to run and thrash and scream, you pause. It's just a flinch, a moment of blankness and incomprehension, but it is enough to meet the gaze of the white sturgeon in front of you.
Its beady eye stares up lazily at you, and normally the stare of an animal, a fish no less, holds nothing but a blank, mindless glance. But there is something in this gaze, it is not intelligence, and perhaps not even wisdom, in the strictest sense of the word. But there is an understanding as it gazes through you, that this is an elder. An ancient being, far older, that has seen much more than you ever will.
It has survived out here, despite predators, despite fishermen, despite human intervention and pollution and dams—it has survived, lived for over a hundred years. Despite everything.
The sturgeon swims off, bypassing you entirely. You watch it disappear into murky depths and turn to trudge out of the river.
There is respect to be had in the stare of a sturgeon.
~•~
A/N: This was done in thirty minutes for a journalism assignment. Which was to write a fictional story or poem based on a New York Times article. Here is the link to my article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/dining/sturgeon-caviar-yakama-nation.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage
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Poetry & Flash Fiction Collection
PoetryA collection of stories/works/poetry that I will shove into one book. Usually for contest entries
