Produced by Dennis Camire

This week’s poem is by David Stankiewicz, whose most recent book is “My First Beatrice,” published by Moon Pie Press.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Fisherman

By David Stankiewicz

Lying still on the dock,

his face

so close to the surface

he looks right through

his own reflection,

the boy

drops bits of broken bread

I can still see

descending,

disintegrating

down the years.

Those bluegills

and pumpkinseeds,

drawn into

his small circle

of influence,

were eager as he

in their hunger

yet wary, elusive

if you twitched the net

too soon

or otherwise troubled

the waters.

Oh but

he was clever,

attentive

to that sudden,

bidden moment

when mastery and luck

marry in the thrust

to raise

the bright, throbbing thing

up

from murk and mystery,

straight up

into air.

Dennis Camire can be reached at dcamire@cmcc.edu