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Description
I'm going to roll off the couch and into the river,
a chunk of rotting fish hooked to a lead weight, dragged
along the rocks on the bottom by a boat
full of drunk fishermen who want to see me eaten.
Till then I'm on ice, stinking up the cooler and waiting my turn.

There's no returning to bass fishing, the meditative repetition

of cast and reel, cast and reel,
here's a fish, and another, plenty for dinner,
and lunch and breakfast besides

once you've joined in for the bigger game

with exalted cries of "fish on!"
and shark-fishing poles, and dancing with the fish
with your jet boat
and reeling it in closer
includes letting it run, sometimes, or the line will snap,
even though the friction of the line spooling out can rub the skin right
off your thumb,
and you must remember that once it's at shore you can flip it over
and rub its belly while being upside-down makes it dormant, intoxicated,
but sturgeon are

by law

catch-and-release.

Description
I'm going to roll off the couch and into the river,
a chunk of rotting fish hooked to a lead weight, dragged
along the rocks on the bottom by a boat
full of drunk fishermen who want to see me eaten.
Till then I'm on ice, stinking up the cooler and waiting my turn.

There's no returning to bass fishing, the meditative repetition

of cast and reel, cast and reel,
here's a fish, and another, plenty for dinner,
and lunch and breakfast besides

once you've joined in for the bigger game

with exalted cries of "fish on!"
and shark-fishing poles, and dancing with the fish
with your jet boat
and reeling it in closer
includes letting it run, sometimes, or the line will snap,
even though the friction of the line spooling out can rub the skin right
off your thumb,
and you must remember that once it's at shore you can flip it over
and rub its belly while being upside-down makes it dormant, intoxicated,
but sturgeon are

by law

catch-and-release.