Fishing Story

Emigrant Lake

Sitting at the edge of Emigrant Lake,

Rex Dern cast his line as the long shadows

raked over the hills. Whenever Talent

began to weigh on him, Rex came here to fish

and pray. In this manner he discovered
two varieties of raging despair;

the willful variety that is self-induced,

and the other one that seduces on

secret wings and settles just out of sight,

creating a sensation of soulless

blight. Rex reeled his line in and checked his bait.

It looked beaten in its soaked weightlessness.

It looked damaged by a convivial

trout learned in the art of survival.


TS