"Clear Lake, Wisconsin" by Kevin Gruszkowski
Moon shines
down and out all
over the black water
as we tred drunk in
the reedy shallows,
reeling our midnight
hooks in across the
pillowy tufts of sand
and leaves all sunk
beneath the surface,
catching nothing.
Gasoline rainbows
leak from pontoon
motors into the thin
waves as trees brush
in the wind along the
shore, and everything
sways together nicely.
The silence breaks as
hooligans on the pier
across the empty lake
begin streaming green
firecrackers off into the
solemn woods, yowling
fondly as they splinter
off course and plummet
downward into the dark.
As the last sparks fade, I
imagaine the swarms of
animals all still running
from those explosions
madly through the black
woods and into a more
wild wilderness, through
these cool summer nights
and into nothingness.
And then I feel a
sudden tug, and
there’s a fish
on my line.
Moon shines
down and out all
over the black water
as we tred drunk in
the reedy shallows,
reeling our midnight
hooks in across the
pillowy tufts of sand
and leaves all sunk
beneath the surface,
catching nothing.
Gasoline rainbows
leak from pontoon
motors into the thin
waves as trees brush
in the wind along the
shore, and everything
sways together nicely.
The silence breaks as
hooligans on the pier
across the empty lake
begin streaming green
firecrackers off into the
solemn woods, yowling
fondly as they splinter
off course and plummet
downward into the dark.
As the last sparks fade, I
imagaine the swarms of
animals all still running
from those explosions
madly through the black
woods and into a more
wild wilderness, through
these cool summer nights
and into nothingness.
And then I feel a
sudden tug, and
there’s a fish
on my line.