IT'S WORTH THE EFFORT

When the fishing’s rotten, after spending a fraction of my day casting and recasting my line, I reach into my five-gallon bucket of oxygen-depleted water and pick out a floater. By floater I mean that single fish, that pathetic looking mercury-laden perch dumb enough to swallow the hook on my initial cast some four or five hours ago. I’m thinking about throwing him back, about grabbing a late dinner.

A buggy eye stares back at me, and before I tighten my grip, in a desperate attempt to free itself from further torture, that faking-I’m-dead perch flaps itself out of my bare hand and onto the dock. I catch it under my boot, lean into it a little. The buggy eye bulges.

I see seagulls hovering above. I call them garbage birds, rat birds. I reattach the perch to the end of my line and cast it into the lake as far as it’ll go. I slacken my line. Somewhere out there, in the mesmerizing waves, my catch drifts away. It doesn’t take long: the seagulls glide above in diminishing circles. It doesn’t take long: my pathetic perch flies into the sunset.

I tighten my line. The startled seagull lets go. I cast my line again, not because I’m interested in catching birds, but because the fish aren’t biting. I have to do something.

***

I’d like to thank the editors of GlassFire Magazine for having faith in me. If you haven’t checked out their Fall issue, now may be as good a time as any (click here).

I’ve read their nonfiction pieces and can proudly claim that I’m in good company. In Mary Whitsell’s “On The Wrong Side of The Tracks,” she tells us about her sleepless nights in Tokyo with Keiko and Hatsue, two lesbians, friends of a friend, who agree to let her stay at their pet-filled apartment near a mass transit system. In “Love in the Time of Salmonella,” Stephanie Johnson reenacts her anger over a piece of raw chicken caught between the dish basin and the garbage disposal. Her live-in beau, Ben, a former professional chef, is sure to blame. Fortunately, her grandmother offers her some timely advice about finding the right man.

Enjoy the read and don’t forget to celebrate Veteran’s Day.