Trout Bum
The trout bum idles in the grass
--he doesn’t do shit
But anyway
it’s a Zen thing when he casts cane
delicate
bending at the base
his arm a pivot point for something, something
But anyway
the cool crisp (gin) clear waters
braid and unbraid through the Russian olives blue, unyielding and thorny
the trout sip and that’s all tonight
that’s all there ever needs to be
The Hi Church of Dry Fly is sermonizing now
come on outside
But in a drifting city
toward the log jam flood
the quiet death of drowning
the trout bum casts sixty feet on his gravestone lawn
they planted flowers there
she planted flowers
--he doesn’t do shit
But anyway
three inches to the left
three inches to the left
an inch
to the right
and he hooks the blade of grass
mistaken for a rising trout
in the windy evening
blue.
--he doesn’t do shit
But anyway
it’s a Zen thing when he casts cane
delicate
bending at the base
his arm a pivot point for something, something
But anyway
the cool crisp (gin) clear waters
braid and unbraid through the Russian olives blue, unyielding and thorny
the trout sip and that’s all tonight
that’s all there ever needs to be
The Hi Church of Dry Fly is sermonizing now
come on outside
But in a drifting city
toward the log jam flood
the quiet death of drowning
the trout bum casts sixty feet on his gravestone lawn
they planted flowers there
she planted flowers
--he doesn’t do shit
But anyway
three inches to the left
three inches to the left
an inch
to the right
and he hooks the blade of grass
mistaken for a rising trout
in the windy evening
blue.
posted by read | 8:52 PM
2 Comments:
Wonderful poem. This really feels finished and so well put together. It's funny, but I just heard that phrase of gin clear waters while fishing Cheeseman Canyon this past week. Granted, I fish a lot less than you do (I might go more than twice this summer), but to see your use of this phrase in your poem after having written it into a poem yesterday is really something else!
Again about John. The quote is from his wife as we watched him casting yet again on his lawn. I got the phrase gin clear waters from one of the owners of this shop. He always describes the Bighorn as gin clear and I liked that phrase enough to start using it. How was Cheeseman canyon? I've never fished there.
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