‘Gorge’: A Poem on Fishing by Stephen M. Dickey

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Gorge

Millennia before the Bass Pro tours,
Sonar fish finders and electric reels,
Some unsung pioneer dreamed baits and lures,
Felt in his blood how landing lunkers feels.

The knuckle dragger took a piece of bone,
Slivered it down to a promising size,
Fashioning the gorge and braid all on his own,
And hauled in a flathead to whoops and cries.

Fast forward to our present, humdrum day:
We cast, our only catch a cigarette…
At least we’re out of our better half’s way:
We are his legacy, we’re in his debt.

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Stephen M. Dickey is a Slavic linguist at the University of Kansas. He has published widely on Slavic verbal categories, and has published translations of Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian fiction and poetry including Meša Selimović’s Death and the Dervish, Borislav Pekić’s How to Quiet a Vampire, and Miljenko Jergović’s Ruta Tannenbaum. He has published poetry in various journals including Shot Glass Journal, Trinacria, The Lyric, Rat’s Ass Review, Lighten Up Online, Better Than Starbucks, Asses of Parnassus, and Blue Unicorn.