Billingsgate - 4:00AM

Andrew and I have a favorite place for gathering with our friends simply because Wednesday oysters on the half-shell are $1.00 apiece. You can find us there late afternoons maybe once a month with Andrew happily devouring two dozen of the mollusks. We both agree that weekly forays would be overkill, and the specialness would wear thin.



Billingsgate - 4:00AM


A roll of the dice riding on the whims
of appetites. Shop owners and chefs
walk the morning market.

A warehouse of fresh fish and seafood
heaped high beneath lights brighter
than the London sun struggling to rise.

Sea bream, cod, or the catch of the day?

Like players betting on stocks
customers invest in oysters and shrimp,
assume risk on snapper and skate.

Fast talking vendors
in wellies and aprons control cash flow.

Profit in the buyer's pocket, too,
if wagered right. If not, today's sole
surfaces in a bouillabaisse tomorrow.

Perhaps, that's why Jenny,
years behind the counter, eats only meat.



Marilyn Aschoff Mellor