Sunfish

 

The pond has a flat affect, brackish

and unresponsive to any breeze

trying to riffle it.

 

Black Angus cattle nearby crop grass,

forever untroubled,

working hard to arrive fat

at the meat packer.

 

I feel compelled to say something wise

to myself—

that ten-year-old standing there

in grandfather’s pasture, alone

with a line dead in the water…

 

Chew the time you have thoroughly

and remember: there’s never a nibble

until there is one.

© Don Thompson

Don Thompson has been publishing poetry since the early 1960’s, including a half dozen books and chapbooks in this century. A 2010 Los Angeles Times profile, “Planted in the San Joaquin,” remains available online.

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