"This Current's Course"

By Matt Smythe

Nameless stream, a whisper among boulders and tree roots,
a tired whisper after the dam holding an acre-sized beaver pond breached, let
loose a river from up the mountain, straightening the meandering curves of
this small seam, bounding,
fanning wide into the moss, fern, rock and pines
before circling back and rushing on.

From the relative depths of a dark cut
beneath a knot of exposed birch roots,
an eager brook trout attacks my fly.
Bright gem catching a glint of sunlight in
this almost accidental universe.
Giant in its place here.

---

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…

VetRep is a finalist in the theater class for Hudson Valley Magazine’s “Best of Hudson Valley 2024”! The elimination ballot is live for the next round, so follow this link and vote for Veterans Repertory Theater!

Listen to our latest episode with Jean Ciampi on the Savage Wonder Podcast, where we interview incredibly talented musicians, artists, writers, and theater professionals, who also happen to be veterans.