Visceral | Cassidy Berlin

My job this summer consisted of teaching people how to drive boats at Lake Powell. On occasion I would drive a boat over to the fuel dock to get topped off before a customer went to use it. One particular day I was walking around the fuel dock waiting for the fuel attendant to finish putting oil in my boat, when I took a glance at the water. All I could see was carp. Carp, if you don’t know, are the ugliest, stupidest, most disgusting fish you will ever see. They are big and slimy with a mucky greenish brown tint to their scales. All they ever do is swim around and eat the fuel that falls into the water from the boats. Had there been just one carp swimming in the water I might have just kept walking. But the fact that there were so many of this one ugly creature swarming around like vultures in the water made me stand there and just stare. If you don’t get what I’m saying, take for example a bee. If you saw one bee buzzing around you wouldn’t think much of it. But when you see an entire beehive something about it just draws you in. It makes you tingle to see many of something weird all in one area at one particular moment.