Variation on a Theme by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

‘Man is a fish that swims in its own sperm.’
             Imagine then a clean white linen napkin
wound firmly round an eel so muscular
             and strong, plunging and twisting in the palm,
that it’s difficult to hold; whereupon
             the knife you take, with which you tried to kill the
bread, neither this sombre iridescence slays:
             The eel rears from your grasp and smites your face. 

                  Catherine Eisner
                  with respectful acknowledgements 
                  to the Restaurant du Chat qui Pêche
                  by Edna St. Vincent Millay
                  (Century Magazine 1923)

Edna St. Vincent Millay bathing
(circa 1927).