The Jagalchi Fish Market

It's as if the Sea of Japan threw up
its entire bounty on the wharf
of the Jagalchi Fish Market,
the largest in Korea, in the world,
from what I've seen,
stall after stall,
alley after alley,
street after street
of fish,
long and shaped like spears fish,
those discus flounders,
mackerel, tuna, red fish, blue fish,
a pile of octopodes draped over cardboard boxes,
tentacles, suckers up, as long as my legs,
a woman, sitting on a bucket, opening oysters,
trays of them on the half-shell, ready to eat,
while another cooks tempura,
another offers sashimi,
while crabs push for space in tanks,
blow fish swim, and below them in shallow basins,
spiny urchins, clams, mussels, spitting anemones,
or something, sea cucumbers,
all smelling like the sea,
as fresh as a breaking wave.

We walked for hours,
looking, photographing, eating.

Three days later in Seoul,
our sneakers began to stink
like the seafood section at Winn-Dixie, Kroger's,
Safeway, Publix, Fred Myers, Piggly Wiggly...


SK/August 2014