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Michael Todd Steffen is Director of the Hastings Reading Series at First Church Congregationalist near Harvard Square. His first book, Partner, Orchard, Day Moon, was published by Cervena Barva Press in 2014. His poems and articles have appeared in Ibbetson Street, Taos Journal, The Boston Globe, Connecticut Review, Poem (Huntsville Literary Association), and in the window of Grolier Poetry Bookshop. He teaches and works for progressive and nonprofit organizations in the Boston-Cambridge area.

Fish Oil

Anchovies smile, menhaden frown
due to the fish inside of the fish,
the pliancy inside of the swimmer, getting
around—patience!—by death and process
to coat omelet pan and Italian shoes,
seal sashes, make bar soap hard to handle,
resist the little flame’s step down a candle
to tears. Pilchard scowl, herring beam.
That is the way it is with what cannot
stop to think. Not for one moment.
They will forever wear these expressions.

— Michael Todd Steffen

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