Belle Isle and After

I showed how I put whiskey

into water to drink it without chasing.

Then they got it, to them the

Amber evening water took like moose to a bog.

The lichen was a pillow just as

the first winded fawn took to laying,

and so this is how I become a man--

once I'm needed, I'm made so.

. . .

Last night we finished off our whiskey

and pan-seared two lakers and a coho.

A hearty fish meal, so wisely all of

the whiskey drank on empty stomachs first.

We stood on the rock and moss outcropping

with arching down and away to the Lake

on all our sides but forward where we took

pictures and heavy fog settled among the other islands.

. . .

Came into the docks of Rock Harbor on a long

raining and chilled August day to set

across the channel to the big Island, rain

and whitecaps coming across steady as oak root.

For dress that rain-soaked, hard-paddling day:

polypropylene sock liners, costco woolies,

standard briefs and gray disintegrating jeans,

chaco belt, white long-sleeve top, rain jacket,

plastic bags and garbage bags and my keen water shoes

and I stayed driest and settled just for that.