July 28, 2024 - “Summers in Guangdong” by Ray Zhang

My grandpa is cooking tonight and shows me how to pick the best eels.

He brings me to a thousand black tongues dancing in ashy buckets, growing plump under humid heat.

I reach in, ready to teach my fingers the feeling of slime, but he pulls my hand away.

He points to pairs of red gills and dark pupils, noting how they curve crests atop each other.

The fishmonger gives him two as I grasp his arms.

Tastes of summer brine etch in my throat as I wait to wash it away with eel congee.