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I’ve been playing with ideas for picture book characters this week. Often they present themselves to me when I’m out on a long bike ride. This one came to me on a backpack trip in the central Sierra Nevada mountains a couple of summers ago (he’s been waiting a long time)!

He lives in an alpine pond – somewhere out there!  Meet “Old Catfish”! 

For more #PoetryFriday delight, head over to Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect who is hosting the roundup this week! 

catfish

 OLD CATFISH   by Patricia J. Franz

 

Arc of a late-summer sun

glitters on granite walls;

louvered light

dissolves below

the undisturbed surface.

 

Old Catfish lies

tucked between buried boulders,

where a cedar’s kindness

cools

the far end

of the pond.

His mottled body

hovers in soft sand –

still.

Old white whiskers

flick,

detect a chill

in the water.

 

Midges flit;

mayflies mingle in the shadows;

crickets and katydids

tune the instruments

carried on their backs.

 

Like a magnet,

drawn to a secret jazz joint,

they can’t resist

the chance to jam.

 

Old Catfish eases into view —

the player’s cue:

it’s time…

 

Old Catfish sets a beat…

            Bloop

                        Bloop bloop

 

Music returns him

to days of youth,

when a brash, young fish

dreamed

of life beyond

this simple pond.

 

Indulging his hidden heart,

Old Catfish lingers

a minute…

listens…

 

… an echo

of a solo song

floats

above the pond.

 

He’s Old Catfish,

wiser tonight,

finding beauty

in rhythms unwrapped

with every soft sunset

 

            Bloop

                        Bloop bloop

 

 

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