Impatient
Standing on the floating dock with my father,
fishing.
We hadn’t caught anything,
we never caught anything.
It was the big joke in our family.
Waiting,
without the patience of a true
fisherman,
wondering why other people caught
fish
and we wasted time.
Finally, we had given up and were packing up to
leave.
As I reeled up the line, quickly,
impatience showing again,
I turned to look as the lure cleared the water-
and a silver streak followed.
A fish! My God, a fish!
He shot out of the dark water
pursuing his escaping prize,
and fell back in, to swim
elsewhere
in search of other prey.
With nervous hands
I dropped the line back into the water,
hoping to give him back his prize
and make him mine,
desperately not wanting
to go home empty-handed
again.