fishing 4

by joel abel - Taurus

he couldnt really 
remember the last words she
had said to him,

was it:
what are you looking
for?

or:

what are you fishing
for?

late that night
he drifted on his
boat in the 
middle of 
Cripple Knee Lake
and tried to remember.

the catfish were strange
that night.
driven to thier own submergeded
lunacy and unfathomonable
wierdness by the 
high pale full moon,
he could see the mud
they stirred rising 
from the bottom of the lake,
heard them thrashing in the
shallow reeds outside
his lantern light.

twice they had bumped
his taunt line,
buzzing it like a low
base string.

"was it fishing?"
he asked himself
3 different times that night.

was it?

3 times the cattfished
buzzed his line.

he heard a bullfrog
croak in the distance,
then a coyote yip somewhere
on the bank.

in that kind of heat and
stillness he knew something
was coming,
maybe something from the bottom
of the lake.
maybe an awnser to his question.

he turned the lantern down
low and waited.
Birth sign: Taurus
Date created: 2002-09-22 21:21:38
Last updated: 2021-03-03 14:46:38
Poem ID: 70141

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