Paul Rossiter

Sashimi and Roses (1998)

delicate red chunks of raw fish
nestling
on a cumulus of white crunching daikon

a tiny mound of green mustard
one green leaf

the discretion of whitewood chopsticks

ocean-borne scent
salt and sword-edge and pine forest

sparseness and pale scrubbed wood

a slender vase with three
red roses

and beneath it all

the almost perceptible
shifting of tectonic plates

(but you’re not supposed to think about that)

‘Sashimi and Roses’ was first published in Printed Matter 21.1 (1998). For a note about Paul Rossiter see Some Cultural Uncertainties.