LOBSTER
PARLOR
The Adroit Journal
Issue 47, October 2023
The plastic container of lobster is speckled with condensation. By now the sky is thick and pink, wild orange clouds whispering over the ocean. The sun sets away from the water, casting a bright glow on the trees and dune grass. Everything grows tall, sharp shadows that turn the landscape into a fantastic painting, all the blue water and houses and people lit for a few precious moments in glowing gold. The oven clicks on. The lobster meat is slick and pink and slides over the pan of butter like it’s liquid.
When you trap lobsters in those cages, and one rips off another’s claws, whom do you blame? The lobsters? The reckless fisherman, the profit-hungry restaurateur? What wouldn’t we all do to avoid being boiled alive?