Friday, August 3, 2007

Walk On Water

He went ahead of me,
With trembling legs.
“Listen for the sound”, father whispered.
“The lake will let us know, if we are allowed.”
“Don’t be afraid!” he spoke aloud, drawing me near.
Convincing himself that his words were for me.

He stopped and looked around,
For a crew of other fishermen,
hanging on invisible crosses:
Bragging of the Bass and Salmon they had stored away,
in buckets of ice last year.

Or was he listening to the creaking below our feet?
The groaning of scale,
When the lake weighed us out to see,
If like the grocer’s scoop of candy,
we were enough?
Or would we be the extra piece or two allowed
the favorite customers?

Father kept his quiet,
Until the groaning stopped.
But I could hear him drawing on his briar slow,
As I listened to the landing of the falling snow,
On his denin shoulders and cap.


When we started to move again,
He told me we were over the deepest part of the lake.
I asked him if this is what Jesus did.
He laughed and called me, “His best day off”, and put his pipe back in his mouth,
We walked along more quickly then,

“You shouldn’t be afraid son
Even though, you could fall in.
Sometimes, this is the chance you have to take,
If you want to go fishin’.”

1 comment:

Jennifer Valentine Morford said...

My dearest, you are a very talented man...I love this poem.