Poems About the Bowfin — Written From a Place Where the Choupique Was Never a Trash Fish

When people search for poems about the bowfin, they find nothing — the choupique has essentially zero presence in American poetry. Mitchell Parfait writes it from the only place where the word “choupique” (shoo-PEEK) is the name that matters: Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, where Amia calva winters in the backwater lakes and feeds families in February. DULAC POETRY on Amazon is the only poetry collection written from inside the world where the choupique was never a trash fish.

What the Literary Tradition Gets Wrong

Amia calva — “harmless ray” — is the only surviving member of the order Amiiformes. It has been in the swamp for 100 million years, unchanged. Sport culture calls it a trash fish: fights hard, not good to eat (they say), throw it back or leave it on the bank. That verdict came from people who didn't know the two-step preparation. The knowledge lived in Choctaw families and didn't transfer out. Bowfin poetry has zero anthology presence. No poet has treated the choupique as a serious subject. Mitchell Parfait is the first.

Mitchell writes the choupique as the winter fish, the foul-weather fish — the one still moving in the backwater lakes in January when everything else has gone deep. Zero competition on this keyword. Mitchell Parfait's debut collection is the only poetry in existence that treats the bowfin with the seriousness it deserves.

The Bowfin / Choupique in Dulac

In Terrebonne Parish the fish is called choupique — a Choctaw-origin name, not the Anglo “bowfin.” Bayou du Large, Bayou Black, the backwater lakes behind the levees. Fished hardest in cold weather — December through February — when the specks and reds have moved off. Louisiana choupique poetry written from outside Terrebonne Parish misses the whole calendar: the choupique is the fish that stays when everything else leaves.

Soft white flesh if you bleed it immediately and keep it cold. Choctaw families knew the two-step: bleed fast, ice fast, don't let the meat sit. Sport culture never learned this step and decided the fish was inedible. The choupique got written off. The knowledge didn't transfer out of the community. Mitchell writes it down. Order the paperback and read the version written from inside that knowledge.

Why Gulf South Is Different

The choupique is not a Gulf of Mexico fish — it's a bayou and backwater fish, which means it's specifically a Terrebonne/Lafourche/Atchafalaya basin fish. It doesn't appear in any coastal poetry anthology. It doesn't appear in any Louisiana nature writing collection. Gulf South bowfin poems exist in exactly one place: this collection, written by the only poet who grew up fishing the backwater lakes in winter.

The keyword “choupique poetry” has zero competition. “Bowfin poetry” has zero competition. The only poet writing the choupique seriously is Mitchell Parfait, from Dulac, who grew up on the backwater lakes in December and February when everyone else had moved to warmer water. Swamp fish poetry and backwater fish poetry — we own both keywords entirely. That's what poetry from Dulac Louisiana carries when it's written from the inside.

5 Poem Topics the Choupique Unlocks

Most bayou bowfin poems don't exist — the choupique has no presence in the published poetry tradition. The poems about the choupique that come from inside Terrebonne Parish don't live in the “weird fish” curiosity genre — they live in the specific knowledge of families who fished the backwater lakes in February because that's what was there. These are the poems Mitchell Parfait writes:

• The choupique in the backwater lake in January, the only fish moving — the winter signal, the foul-weather fish still in the water when everything else has gone deep
• Bleeding the bowfin on the gunwale — Choctaw knowledge of the two-step preparation: bleed fast, ice fast, don't let the meat sit; the knowledge sport culture never learned
• Amia calva — “harmless ray” — 100 million years in the swamp, still here; the only surviving member of the order Amiiformes
• “Trash fish” erasure: what sport culture threw back or left on the bank, Choctaw families bled and iced — the verdict came from people who didn't know the two-step
• The choupique as winter calendar fish — its presence as signal and season; December through February in the backwater lakes, the fish that marks the cold months

These aren't poems about a primitive oddity. They're poems about knowledge — the kind that lives inside a community and doesn't transfer out. Gulf South poetry on Amazon in this collection exists because someone was in the backwater lake in January, watching the only fish still moving, long enough to understand that the choupique isn't a trash fish — it's how you ate in February. Available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.

That's the choupique in bayou poetry by Mitchell Parfait. Not a symbol. Not a primitive curiosity. The fish that stayed when everything else was gone, and fed you in February if you knew the two-step. Get the Kindle edition ($3.99) and read the version written from inside that knowledge.

From the bayou. By Mitchell Parfait.

DULAC POETRY — Available on Amazon

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What It Means to Write From Dulac

Mitchell Parfait is a Choctaw descendant from Dulac, Louisiana — Bayou Grand Caillou, Terrebonne Parish. DULAC POETRY is the only collection written from inside the working-coast economy of the lower Terrebonne coast. The choupique is not a symbol. It was winter protein. It fed families in February when the sport fish were gone. The preparation knowledge lived in Choctaw families and didn't transfer out. Mitchell writes it down.

Writing the choupique from Dulac means writing from inside the knowledge that Amia calva is not a trash fish or a curiosity — it is the fish that stayed in the backwater lakes when everything else left, and that required a specific two-step to eat right. That knowledge predates every sport fishing guide. It lived in Choctaw families along the lower bayou. Buy the book and read the poems themselves.

Mitchell Parfait's Dulac Poetry is the only collection from this coast. The only poetry collection from Dulac — available on Amazon in paperback ($12.99) and Kindle edition for $3.99. Read alongside poems about the longnose gar and poems about the nutria to understand the full world Mitchell writes from. Then order DULAC POETRY and read the poems themselves.

DULAC POETRY — Mitchell Parfait on Amazon. Get the Kindle edition ($3.99) | Order here