[encore] 351: Fish Heads by R.A. Villanueva

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2025

⏱️ 6 minutes

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Summary

Today’s poem is Fish Heads by R.A. Villanueva.

The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We’ll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we’re going back into the archive to revisit Tracy K. Smith’s time as host. Today’s episode was originally released on March 30, 2020.

In this episode, Tracy writes… “What is it about food that feeds us? Not just the calories and nutrients, but the deeper yearning certain foods quench?”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, it's Maggie Smith. I'll be stepping into your feed starting August 18th with new episodes of The Slowdown.
0:09.4	Until then, we're revisiting episodes from previous seasons.
0:14.0	Today's episode comes from Tracy K. Smith. I hope you enjoy this selection.
0:25.4	Thank you. I hope you enjoy this selection. I'm Tracy K. Smith, and this is The Slowdown.
0:47.1	What is it about food that feeds us? Not just the calories and nutrients, but the deeper yearning certain foods quench. I remember the joy of eating a whole fried fish in a market stall in Mexico.
0:57.1	I watched the cook scrape away the scales with a flat metal blade.
1:03.0	But she didn't dredge the fish in egg or season it even with salt, the way my father sometimes did.
1:10.3	She simply slid the small thing whole into a deep
1:14.2	pot of oil, a creature the size of my hand, or maybe my two hands, pressed flat together in praise.
1:23.4	When she set the plate down before me, and I took a first eager bite, it was crisp and piping hot,
1:31.0	with perfect firm white meat. The jolt of heat from chilies numbed my lips and caused my nose to run.
1:40.2	The eyes were smooth and round, like two pearls on my tongue. The fins so light and crisp as to melt in my mouth.
1:53.2	Sitting on my stool, watching the people go by with their vegetables and meat and their bags of market wares, I felt a greedy delight for the meal of delicious fresh fish, yes,
2:06.3	but also for being alive on the planet in a new place,
2:10.8	taking sustenance alongside strangers.
2:15.1	I noticed once it occurred to me to look that the fish had large front teeth,
2:21.8	square incisors with little discernible ridges, teeth like my own, made for biting, and molars
2:30.7	designed to chew. Had the creature felt this same joy once himself,
2:37.0	it must be true that we are all hungry for something.
2:42.7	Today's poem is Fishheads by R.A. Villanueva.
2:48.8	It celebrates the deep nourishment that sometimes comes with the ritual of sharing food.
2:58.3	Fishheads by R.A. Villanueva. Yanked free at the gills from cartilage and spine, these fish heads my mother cleans, whose body she scales, throws all into salt water and crushed tamarind.
	...

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