Slippery Fellow

Tate Kraetzer

That is how the eel question draws you in. The eels’ mystique becomes an echo of the questions all people carry within them: Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? […] The eels didn’t care about the eel question, why would they? To them, it was never a question in the first place.

—The Book of Eels, Patrick Svensson

I want to take root,

To grow limbs with the spontaneity

One grows organs, the spontaneity

Of combustion, the others

Must imagine the dark

Frightens the ones like me,

The ones built for such things,

The others cannot know the dark

With their weak eyes and unslippery

Bodies, I know — I know the clutter

Of the void, the press of the river,

The salt of the cold — it’s titillating:

The buffeting, the process of creation,

Creating something perfect as me,

I bend to the will of the current

(Like a spine) and do not break

(Like something better), I am

The ultimate myth, spawned

In the unknown clutch of eternity —

Free and given the proper mercy

I would give my eyes for my own slice

Of forever — of a permanent stomach

And a place to rest my perfect body —

How it would mold to fit the rocks!

To ease into the mud from whence

I came; to ease into true darkness —

That which you could understand.

Nik Vagenius

Biography: Oregon based photographer, Nik Vagenius, has been in the photography game for only a few months. Originally from Indiana, they moved to Oregon to pursue their love of Marine Biology at Oregon State University. After being gifted an old camera, they quickly fell in love with photography, inspired by the Oregonian landscapes. The lush textures and narrative settings offering a perfect backdrop for their whimsical drawings. This layering of line, landscape and story has offered Nik the opportunity to bring three of his greatest loves together to express the joy and delight offered under an Oregon sky.

Artist Statement: I took this photo in late October, when the colors of autumn were in full swing. I hike at this spot a lot, but this was the first time I’ve seen it in such vibrant and warm colors. It reminded me of the coloration in certain trout species. I knew I wanted to draw a fish in this photo, but once I was done with him, he seemed so sad. I gave him a pair of legs but left his solemn expression. My theory is he sold his soul for these legs and realizes he can never go back to his friends and family again. So he stands near the bank, yearning. He is probably a fantastic runner, though.

Tate Kraetzer

Biography: Tate Kraetzer is a second year studying Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences at OSU. Their primary passion is learning and exploring ways to combine their great loves of Latin, fish, and poetry. He has been published in The Classical Outlook and has contributed to PRISM behind the scenes. She’s known for yapping about anything and everything, but most especially eels.

Artist Statement: This is a persona poem from the perspective of an eel (anguilla, translated to “slippery fellow”). When I was first trying to write this, I struggled with finding the eel’s perspective — I wanted to force upon it my warm-blooded desire for warmth and light, but that’s not what an eel is built for. I wanted to explore how a creature like this (with such varied life stages, habitats, and a stomach that dissolves when it develops reproductive organs and returns to the sea) might view things like permanence or the humans that keep trying to figure it out.