I stand in the water,
and feel the frosty water surround my legs.
I fling my rod out,
I watch the ripple effect from where it lands.
The water glistens and sparkles
Making reality seem like a dream.
I see the reflection of trees and my face in the water.

I wait patiently, sitting in the scorching sun.
I close my eyes and feel
beads of sweat
slide down my eyelids and my face,
as if I was a popsicle
that's been set in the sun on a hot miserable day.
I dose off,
thinking of the fish I caught the day before,
the sun beating down on their slimy bodies
as they lay in the water with a stringer through their gills,
trying to swim away but being jerked back by the stringer.
and their death is inevitable.

Hours later the line yanks,
I jolt straight up on instinct.
it’s just a rock I think in my mind.
It tugs harder, this time I’m sure it’s a fish.
I reel it in and feel the fish trying to glide away with my minnow.
Heavier than usual, I think.
I go out in the water with my net
an almost get it in the net, but right before that,
the hook rips out.
I hear the ripping of flesh the hook tore away.
 

I cringe

I dive and grab the slimy body in my hands.
Careful to apply pressure when I caught the fish,
but not to much or he will tumble out,
yet somehow he doesn’t.
In that moment I feel like,
Brian from Brian’s Hunt.

-Christian Goth