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Blue Marble Review

Literary Journal for Young Writers

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Fishing on the White River

By Emily Dorffer

We could see the eddies carrying algae

downstream where some fly fishermen

had recently gone to whip their rods.

She said, “I’ll catch a brook trout this time.

It’ll be a lunker. You’ll see.”

I said, “Of course you will, after I do.”

My dad would be arriving soon, dangling

worms in our faces. In the amusing way

of this place, rainbow trout leapt into the fog

before splashing down to tempt us to travel to

the end of the rainbow with almonds and parsley.

“Powerbait,” she said, “is the best way

to get a few nibbles.” I said,

“Which color works best: pink, yellow, or orange?”

We had known each other for ages

so my love for her, like a patchwork quilt

draped across me, reflected my experiences

in a simplified way as if they were viewed

through fragments of stained glass

collected from a church’s floor and whose edges

had been sanded into smoothness. “Your luck,”

she whispered, “your skill, your instinct

will lead the way.” Her forehead glistened

with diamonds of sweat. “You’re the expert,”

I said, but I pointed to the jar with the

highlighter yellow balls. The raindrops

were drumbeats. “You’ve got this,”

she muttered, “I’ll bet there’s a hungry fella

eyeing your bait.” Trolling is the process

by which one trails a baited line

behind a boat but how, how?

With the current’s help. I know that now,

as long as the line doesn’t snag, anyhow.

 

 

 

Emily Dorffer is a current undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University. She has previously had a short story published in Breath & Shadow.

 

Filed Under: Poetry Tagged With: Summer: 5 Poems/4 Stories

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