39 Feet of Connecting Trout Stream

Thirty-nine feet of connecting trout stream


There is rubble on the shore rocks
when the stream is low and it's hard
to find a pool that's cold enough
to sustain fish even when a hatch
scatters midges where there is no cloud
nor flash flood so shallows might once
again fill full of water and fish
with expectant rise eat nymphs back
here where they belong since today
where the dog digs gravel reflecting
auburn in still stream like autumn
below a large shore and overhangs
of roots drying in this heat
digging for the wet deep down and under
this whole tangle of bleached-out river
rocks and tumbles forever in spring
without questioning a shape or weight
trying not to get caught up in a place
where things remain the same until a year
when the ground saturates and spring brings
a run-off that locals remember for years
as much as the fish remember this drought
and trout climb up to the cool mountain streams
because pools are now rare down here
quite narrow when water whips still
around bigger stones that gather mosses
in velvet time when bears look
for mates in the roar of spring before
a trickle spills around dried out deer bones
and bones turn to stone then lose their places
in miles of blurred surfaces
from another rain visiting long after the glacier
marked its place long after heavy rains
and dry spells are caught between the planting
and corn silk turning amber in water
and the shore gets smaller and dank
when the leaves begin their journey
downstream when the fish return.

Linda Hogan