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goodbye, little aquarium

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2017.01.06

Friends have taken the smaller of our aquariums - I know it's in good hands with a smart young lad. When we were carrying the many parts (and jugs of water) up to the system's new home, a neighbor told the new eight-year-old owner, "I'm going to get you some fish!" To which the boy responded, "Actually, it's best if we wait for five weeks before adding anything else. That way the aquarium can stabilize. Also, it's a small aquarium so it can't support too many more fish."

Which was the perfect answer.

rand()m quote

Immature poets imitate mature poets steal bad poets deface what they take and good poets make it into something better or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique utterly different than that from which it is torn the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time or alien in language or diverse in interest.

—T.S. Eliot