America is so beautiful Hot dogs and Coca-Cola Drive through liquor stores Soccer moms in minivans To say nothing of the trout and all the blondes

Eating dinner alone is a lot like being dead

I for one Would be easier to catch than the fickle wild rainbow Six-weight rod, load and cast A green bikini Fading tan lines Untamed golden curls

I found a shallow Reflecting pool deep in the pines Brought it home in my creel Now for the matter Of how to hang it on my wall

After fishing with a friend Watching the sun sink lower Simultaneously compelled, we searched For flat, weathered stones To skip across the upside down sky A preferable alternative To having a conversation

Fishing tip: Trout enjoy pop music Like Addison Rae

Self help books are full of shit Remove clothing Enter River Become River Ripple, eddy, flow

Lying on a pine needle bed brown Gazing at a pine needle sky green I could believe the whole world Is pine needles I find them in my socks and underwear

Hard to catch fish In chocolate milk Flowing rapids through a washed out valley Up switchbacks, across corn fields And gravel pits, down abandoned fire Roads. To save my rod tip Pushing backward through the brush I encountered a man as tall as a pine Sitting on a burning stump He asked me if I had heard of Hell I told him I had not And asked if the fishing Was any better there

Bountiful catch today Weeds, fallen trees, More weeds Rock bass, an old watch Time itself - puts up a good fight '67 Camaro, piece by piece Spent the rest of the day Reassembling Drove time to Dairy Queen For cherry dipped cones

Bulletin board announcement They're building a roundabout At the intersection - confluence - Of the St. Croix and Mississippi A stop sign would have sufficed Good luck trying to explain A roundabout to a carp Do Trout know how To zipper merge?