drift
no thought
wordless except
for when we talk

it'd been 20 years
since i caught a fish
last time might have been
with step-father otto on the dock
in blue point pulling up long green eels
we skinned on a nail, side of the shed,
or maybe it was with my friends hanging
lines off the railroad trestle above a shallow
creek with stubby silver fish, catch & release

today i was rather inept, lost a lure on a log (overcast)
and tangled my line repeatedly but i finally decided i
would focus on fishing and it turned out what that entailed
was letting my mind go blank as i reeled my pink jig in slowly

a dolly trout struck, flash of silver, adrenalin rush, and i reeled her
in like a dog on a retractable leash; bruce directed me, scooped her
up in the net and i held her in my hands, gills red as beef, and the fish
made a sound, as if to talk, and we pulled the hook out. rather barbaric,
but bill assured me it didn't hurt much & who hasn't felt the hook? that's life...