The apple doesn’t fall far from 
the tree, right? But a microburst 
day might blow it to some exotic
orchard, say kiwi, or dragon fruit. 
Which is how Sylvia Plath’s 

and Ted Hughes’ son, Nick, chose fish 
behavior rather than poetry. In 
my own poetic vacancy—the age 
between high school and early 
career—Plath post-mortem summited 

all feminist peaks, while Hughes was 
deemed part beast, part poet-
laureate. I met neither. Nick, 
then colleague, rarely mentioned 
family—Ted and Sylvia mere 

motes in the atmosphere of fisheries 
biology. Our shared research love 
was lithesome and fickle—we explored 
why stream fishes chose and held 
specific positions in flowing water—

our papers adorned with terms 
such as capture success, reactive 
distance, energy maximization. 
We dined on Pulpo a la Gallega 
and almejas while chatting about our 

session at the stream-fish meetings
in Luarca, Spain; afterwards penning
a joint review.* I was a decade 
older, and his Dean emailed 
“tenure evaluation?” “With pleasure” 

I replied, despite the caveat 
“letter will be public.” Nick’s papers
read like Shelley’s sonnets, dog-eared in 
my library—the letter flew off my printer, 
circled once, and entered the gravitational 

field of University of Alaska: Tenure quickly 
granted. Next month a case of wine 
sans sender knocked on my door. 
Confirmation received from Nick’s 
smile, reaching almost to his ears. 

Repeated gaps in contact and 
I thought “genetic depression,” 
but Nick could still pull rebounds 
off the boards—until he couldn’t. 
Like Antigone, Oedipus Rex, 

or the Book of Job, we all run 
the familial race, some longer, 
some shorter, but always till the end, 
because the apple really never 
does fall far from the tree. 

*P. A. Rincón, N. F. Hughes, and G. D. Grossman. “Landscape approaches to stream fish ecology, mechanistic aspects of habitat selection and behavioral ecology. Introduction and commentary.” Ecology of Freshwater Fish 2000: 9:1-3.

Publisher’s note:

Text of article is available at Wiley Online Library (link retrieved on 23 December 2023):
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1034/j.1600-0633.2000.90101.x

Gary Grossman,

Professor Emeritus of Ecology at University of Georgia, has poems, short fiction, and essays in 47 literary reviews. His work has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and the Pushcart Prize for 2023. For 10 years Gary wrote “Ask Dr. Trout” for American Angler magazine. His poetry books Lyrical Years (Kelsay Press) and What I Meant to Say Was... (Impspired Press) are available from Amazon. His 2023 graphic memoir My Life in Fish: One Scientist’s Journey (Impspired Press) is also available from Amazon.

Author’s website: www.garygrossman.net

And his blog: https://garydavidgrossman.medium.com/