Big Fat Lake Trout

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By Robert James

Gleeful stumbles on granite
The canoe is roughly landed
Where is the sharp filleting knife?
A victory – hold it aloft and stand together
We’ll capture it on film
The big fat fish
With its big useless toothy head
Hours not wasted, floating widely
In calm bays, over deep drops
Giving up dinner
Or coming back when it’s cold
Cold gruel, mere gruel.
Take that fat fish away, to a flat rock
Fillet it and gut it
Those gulls can have the offal
We’ll stay here and stoke the coals
You fishermen of lore
Get the Teflon skillet
And make the gruel naught, in our minds
As we lunge into the aromatic pan
With our plastic forks
Scooping out the fat orange flesh
Made fatty and yummy with butter and garlic
And fresh herbs smuggled in
Quickly stuffed into the food barrel
I forgive you, the cause is just
Now pass the lemon
A snort of plastic brandy will round it off.
Tomorrow, more gruel no doubt
Then more fat orange trout
Or plump bass
And snorts of brandy and rye
On the sloping rock
And we’ll pass around the cigarillos.

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