Jeff Kersh

Jugging
(for Elizabeth Bishop)

Late night, cooler packed with ice and beer,
We sit in the boat saying next to nothing
Watching the white half-gallons float
Behind u son the river, sweeping
A flashlight every so often, reflective
Tape sparkling in harmony with the stars.

We're hazy like the night air
Congealing and lifting around us,
As if Nature's trying to keep us warm
or hide us from eyes in still-lit windows
In the houses on the banks.
The beer's set in, the fish silent

As the peace floating everywhere
So late; even if they refuse
Hooks laden with minnows and Shad,
This night will have been a success,
Blood pressure slowing to normal
And a week's worth of corporate sleep
Drifting into natural slumber,
The kind you don't wake up from
Unless it's a matter of survival.
The only sound is the buckets
Jostling one another as they float by.

Then the white floats begin
A frantic dance, fish fighting
For lives given up too easily;
Butch fires up the motor while I
Put on my gloves, grip a line
To pull our first prize boatward.

It pulls hard, and I yank back,
Reaching underneath for the hook
And the Cat mouth grabbing hold.
I pull him in-a big one, eyes wildly
Begging me for mercy, sympathy
Or at least a quick, jerked death.

I give it to him-a hard knock
On the side of the boat, instant.
His body's soon covered with others,
Whiskers shining stilettos
Under the fullest of moons.
It's like that, instinct, survival

Only as good as the smaller fish,
Lost when some alien craft
Pierces your silent home, pulls
You gasping into alien air, alone,
Looking your captor in the eye
The instant before the snap, blackness.

The action over, our Mercury Marine
Replaced by its fading ripples,
Fresh beer in hand, the hooks re-baited,
Butch and I resume our positions.
The haze has lifted, the beer is cold,
And Nature settles back, secure in her own sphere.


Jeff Kersh has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing, but escaped academia to become a Technical Writer in St. Louis, Missouri. He has previously published poems in the Eleventh Muse, the Lucid Stone, and Heartbeat, among others.


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