Take out the hook,
put me back in the water
and let me swim
against the current,
from mouth to mouth
of river feeding river
then further upstream.
I’ll measure distance by smell.
Channels will narrow.
Your lures will capture
light in the shallows.
My scales will scrape
ankles of mountains
in creek bed gravel.
You’ll wade to your thighs
between glacier and ocean
and catch other fish,
and I will return
in the end to the source.
Eric le Fatte
Eric le Fatte was educated at MIT and Northeastern University in biology and English, but currently hikes, writes, teaches and does research on tiny things in the Portland, Oregon area. His poems have appeared in a number of places, including, happily enough, Tiny Seed.