When I lived there,Vancouver’s Chinatown was the second biggest in North America (after San Francisco’s) I’d never really been in it to see all the very weird and wonderful shops, till one day…

Today I went to Chinatown

Just to check it out

To see the shops and look around

To see what it’s all about

There were shops selling lobsters and crabs

And fish from saltwater tanks

A man said “Can I help you?”

I just said “No thanks”

I stopped and looked

And to my dismay

I saw this fesh seafood 

Was a live display

A Chinese fishmonger’s

It seemed pretty cruel to me

Crabs piled high just waiting to die

And end their misery

The fish were staring at me

Through the murky stinking kelp

Their mouths were plainly saying

Help, help, help.

January 1993