The last of the daylight sneaking off, raindrops
from the pines fall heavy on the cabin’s tin roof
while the kids, wrapped in blankets, listen to a story.
My place is here on the dock,
facing a northwest wind that carries the rain,
a steady mist that grays each direction.
Across the river the lights of the restaurant are
still lit. Locals on barstools facing beers,
a blonde bartender in a generous tank top and last call.
the pine shoreline leans with the storm. A jagged boundary.
Chorus of black above the almost-black of the water.
The age-old arc of this story will continue long after I’m gone.
Yesterday the kids soared as bobbers sprung to life, interrupting
a perfectly still surface. Shockwaves from a dozen catfish, one by one filling
their maw with a fat worm, then filling childhood’s memory.
Cast after cast from the dock, my fly cruising the calm world beneath
the windblown world above. Tonight I imagine
the raw poetry of a Northern pike annihilating the line
between the two. Miles off, the rolling growl of thunder.
Matt Smythe from the Finger Lakes region of western New York. An Army veteran and lifelong outdoorsman, Matt suffers from an inability to sit still. If he’s not in the woods, or on the water, he’s scheming ways to get there. His work has appeared in Free Range American, Gray’s Sporting Journal, the Fly Fish Journal, The Drake, Southern Culture on the Fly, Revive, Midcurrent, TROUT Magazine, and a handful of other non-outdoors-related magazines and literary journals. He recently published a book of poetry with Dead Reckoning Collective titled Revision of a Man.
Follow Matt’s blog, Glorious Mayhem here.
What’s happening at VetRep…
Listen to our latest episode with Kimberly Evans on the Savage Wonder Podcast, where we interview incredibly talented musicians, artists, writers, and theater professionals, who also happen to be veterans.
Join us this Saturday at the Parlor for Thrillers and Laughs, a collection of seven, veteran authored 10-minute plays that are sure to amuse, startle, and thrill you. Settle in with a refreshing summer mocktail and dessert made by our friends at Jones Farm for a night you won’t forget. Shows have been sold out all season long, so get your tickets before they’re gone!