Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Sweet Fish Body” by Nicole Mae.

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Sweet Fish Body

By Nicole Mae

I bend a metal spoon backwards.

Twist its head off and palm

the convex fog.

I screen-print my sweat.

Butter steel.

Baby salmon

is what you called my girl dick.

I said,

“More like swordfish.”

You’re just as grotesque as I am.

On a plate.

Bone china with olivewood forks.

Cis don’t eat

the full of my sweet fish body.

I am trans

dinner.

But leftovers

to some.

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Copyright © Nicole Mae

Previously published in the collection Ribgrass, 2026.

Nicole Mae (they/she) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Saskatchewan, Canada. Their poems, films, and artworks reflect themes of nostalgia, Hungarian diaspora, prairie queerness, ill body, shame, romantic love, and longing. Select works can be found online, in bookstores and magazines, and in art galleries across North America.

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