fin

   it is isnt it

    after all

    it was

wet through and through

what is the innocence of rain?

is it the divisibility
or is it founded in the permeating quality?

is it as if the whole sky
is salivating hungry for them
that drink and grow,
that we see this likeness in ourself?

is it the loss of distinction
, one drop dissolving into another?

or is it the season in which it falls,
being the mildest of them all?

conejos

ears wide open
eyes parked right
left either side of nose
all potential
waiting to spring away
into the night
into the brush

carpetted

what is the sin of snow,
white and soft
ostensibly so pure?

is it the jagged edge,
the insidious nature of a crystal,
sharp and surgical?

or

is it the frozen heart,
ice cold center?

or

is it the origin of all,
falling from the sky
down to hell
had earth
not been in the way?

finally, winter

sun shines
reflected lines
slipping feet
shuffle street
tires spin
winters in

hello phone

hello
I must be going
I'm sad to say I'm on  my way I must
be going.

perhaps I'll stay a week or maybe I'll eat some breakfast
some butter on toast with a side of orange juice
florida oranges no substitutes

homo phone

sumo supposed to know
what was up but dribbled slow
slam dunked the can
but landed like fan
spinning fast pushing all hot gas
dont know if that will last
its about time what  time came to passed
step up to the plate and swing
if the strikes three that the thing
bring whole fruit and leave with the juice
fresh squeezed fresh out of vamoose
 

gramma phone

delta sigma not working your ways
running a gamma rays maze
but you aint in its phase
making what stays stay
and whats they?
theys bout paid to play
when the game is daze
keep your mouth shut if you got nothin to say
try me another way
maybe next time but today int your day
peeja  a town see you laaaaaaaaa

sousa fone

be kind to your web footed
friends for they may be somebodies
mother
then again
they might be a duck
or a frog nonetheless
pitiful without luck without a common sense to rest
their head upon straight from face
to neck legs a danglin
hands tied behind their back
evolved just enough to pass
from a tadpole
to a half who gives damn

muskee (part 3 of seven)

Finding the spot is easy depending on which spot we are looking for.  That is, finding the general area is easy.  Suppose we want to fish at the lighthouse or at eagle wing or at picton.  That is easy to do, in a commonplace sense.   In a precision sense, fishing at the lighthouse or at eagle wing or at picton is very open to interpretation or as jessy larkins says, “interpertation”.  For instance, the lighthouse can be seen from far away.  Plus it is on an island.  If the lighthouse is in view, does it count as fishing at the lighthouse?  Again, what side of the island counts as fishing at the lighthouse?  Depending on who you ask, the interpretation could be varied.  I will say that only the channel side of the lighthouse and down to 213 and as far out as the middle of the channel (but why would you be fishing in the middle of the channel?) can be construed as ‘fishing at the lighthouse.’  The other side of the island, the fishers landing side, would  be fishing the foxy’s run, strangely enough, even though its much closer to the lighthouse than foxy’s.   This is also more close to isle of pines, but no one says they are fishing at isle of pines.  

But suppose we can pinpoint an exact location on the surface of the river.  Getting in that spot and staying there is more difficult.  Due to strong currents and winds, it is hard to stay in a spot.  Finding the spot is obfuscated by the homogeneity of the surface of the water.  Then to find the spot, a spot, one spot, we tend to define it by the landscape on the bottom of the river.  Empty the river of water and you will see a very interesting geology.  Some places are large flats of mud and shells with the crazy erratic thrown out. Very deep places, I have heard, are barren moonlike landscapes where jagged or smooth granite rocks are covered in a thick layer of huge zebra mussels.  The topography is endless and variable.  In a relatively short distance the water can drop from 10 feet deep to 80 feet deep.  Such features, peaks, valleys, boulders, holes, swells, flats, weeds, are interesting to the fish and consequently to the fisherman.

Sometimes we know there are certain features in a certain area and we want to find them again and fish them again.  The best way is to actually look.  The water in the river is clear and thirty feet down is about how far you can see.  If you get into the water the visible range extends for a little farther. I myself keep a pair of goggles in the boat for just this purpose.  At the most simple remedy, the goggles go on and you stick your head in neck deep over the gunwales and take a look.  In deeper water or unswimmable times, the fisherman has modern technology at the ready.  This includes a combination of sonar and satellite guided navigation instruments.  The interpretation of the former and the accuracy of the latter are up for debate.  Instrument based navigation has its time and place but should not be relied upon solely.  The best guide is experience, patience, and good luck.

december suspicions

on cue
snow starting to fall
like the pallor of doubt
on boris gudenov
my brow wet with sweat
eyes open horse size
looking up and down the street
for a hearse to arrive
to carry the dead souls away from the door
they piled up stuck but not stabbed
they had what they had

Musky (part 2 of 8)

But we go out anyway. We go out to catch a fish, I mean, to try to catch a fish in the off chance that we will catch a fish. 

This is the peculiar conundrum that the fisherman is in; the fisherman knows that there will be no catch but hopes that this self-diagnosis is wrong.  Maybe this is the only time in history that one wishes, hopes, prays, that one’s self is wrong about one’s conviction and beliefs and projected outcome.  It is different than the meteorologist predicting an ice storm and hoping that it is just rain.  It is different because the meteorologist is reading signs in the sky whereas the fisherman is guided by gut instinct and is facing a north wind.

But we go out anyway.

The first part of the operation is dour.  The expectation, the knowledge even, of not catching a fish casts a pall over the whole preparation.  If the feeling can be compared to anything it is most like buying flowers for your own funeral even though you know that you won’t die until after the flowers are already dead, so what’s the point?

But we prepare to go fishing anyway. 

The jigs and the chubs and the plugs and the grubs and the rest of the tackle are taken out of their bags and tackle boxes and inspected carefully. The leaders are checked for frays and marks of abrasion.  The lines on the reels are examined and the first twenty feet are cut away and the leader is retied.

On shore the air is brisk.  Out in the boat there is a peculiar chill and its important to be dressed right. 

First one puts on socks and then underwear and then socks again.  Then one puts on pants and then puts on pants and then puts on a shirt and then puts on a shirt and then puts on a sweater and then puts on a sweater that has a hood and then puts on a scarf and then puts on a jacket and then puts on a coat and then puts on waterproof pants and a rain coat.  The final accoutrement is good boots and several layers of gloves.

A sandwich is made in a rush because you start sweating and cursing because you should have made the tea and poured the whiskey into a smaller bottle before putting on all of your clothes.  Also now you have to urinate.  Urinating out of doors is generally required because of the great difficulty in directing the operation with gloves on.  But the boots and waterproof pants are a godsend in this case.

All of the particles and components of a day on the water are carefully placed first on the dock and then handed one by one into the boat.  The last thing to do is to go back up the hill to the shed and find a large pfd that fits over the bulk of your shirt the other shirt the sweater the other sweater with the hood the jacket the coat and the raincoat.

At last the frost is kicked out of the lines and the cleats are freed and the sheets are brought inboard.  The motor jumps to life and you are happy to hear a strong engine piss into cold water. 

We look at eachother at this moment and say something motivational along the lines of “lets go.”

This is the first mistake of the day besides not making the sandwiches, tea, and whiskey before gearing up.  The mistake is to say “lets go” without having fixed a trawl to go to. 

The engine idles as the momentum stalls.

Muskie (part 1 of 7)

The wind was north and the river was calm here, the boat slowly stretching the tethers one at a time and bouncing back, a gentle and random disturbance.  Out behind the island the water was patchy where the air touched down in breaths.  One imagined the pattern to be a shadow of the tall pines on the island, but it was not so.  Far out on the open river far away from trees, the surface was blown in vast but delineated sections giving the impression that the air was far less isobaric than anyone ever knew.  I knew this would be a bad day to catch a fish and that was what it was; it was a bad day to catch a fish.  But let me clarify.  It was not a bad day to catch a fish, necessarily; rather it was a badly conditioned day to catch a fish.  

What where the conditions that made it particularly bad to catch a fish?

The conditions, namely the condition, was the north wind.  Ask anyone except for the cormorant if they have ever catched a fish when the wind was north.  No one ever has.  When the wind is north, the fish cannot be catched.  Maybe they want to be catched but they fail at that and we fail to catch them too.  

See, this is a two part system.  There is you (the catcher) and then there is the fish (the catch).  Both of you need to participate and meet together in order for a catching to happen.  And if there is no meeting there is no catching. 

Even without the problem of the north wind, getting a meeting of the catcher and the catch is difficult enough.  The river is big and the participants are small.

clocks ticks

faucet taps
trickled drips
steady sips
missing lips

more or less eleven

a vaccine of tea
hot down the gullet
the warmest part of the room
is the spot you are in it

optics

the light defines the shadow
but absent
the shadow defiles the light

strange figures merging with speed
periphery ghosts a dark mind sees
only the envelopes of a greater dream
leading edges or static referees

spruce

after falling, shed rather,
the needles pile up in an
orange to brown to black strata
some sort of rotting flag
or a testament to firmament
reduced, reused, recurrences

viscose

the waves are there to meet the wind
a perfect union of fluid saturdays
rolling on over to sunday
feel the breeze hear the seas

end of the road

as the yellow line
merges double into
one trouble steering
with a wobble bearing

part of the earth

today on accident
or semi on purpose
instead of ground coffee
in the pot to boil
eventually to drink
to digest and assimilate and extricate
it was black dirt
filled with mica and worms and pieces
of little and big deaths
racoons and leafs and carapaces of beetles
wooden rot and cast off feathers and butterfly eyes
and mushroom roots and rock constituents
but namely Si O Fe Ni C P H Ca K Na Cu Mg He
thats what I drank instead

rub a dub a dub

scientist in the tub
drinking gin and tonique suds
aquatic lifestyle club
double bubble buds
busier than a airline hub
business is gud

wednesday selloff

off the shelf
the goods fly
straight into bins
blue green grey
glass paper trash
the three elements
of a shopping spree
of a shooting spree
of a shipping spree
the health of economy
measured via
the wealth of democracy
we vote with our wallets
they said in 1985
and they said it again
on friday and monday
 

Big Boss Sloopy Cat

a nose split
blood licks
sticks to furs
thick over cuts
soaking wet
the fight over
the victor sober

the shooter or shooters

not only do we not
know how
many shot we dont know how many
they shot
or if they got away or got caught

what we need to know is what they had
for breakfast
and lunch
and dinner

if it is revealed that they (or them)
been eating exclusively froot loops
expect a full acquittal