For Janet Messineo on our birthday.
I can tell time in the dead of night
without a watch
4:00 A.M. sharp Janet starts her car
rods strapped to the roof
waders and gear on the seat
snack bag
tackle box
keys
It’s Derby time!
Janet’s in her glory
heart pounding
mind racing
“goin’ for the Big One”
she dreams of reeling in
at her secret place
no one will ever know of
There on the island shore
in the moonlight
at the water’s edge
she digs her boot heels in the sand
casts her line to the sea
and waits…
In the morning she returns
with a big cooler of fish
“Catch the Big One?” I shout
over my clothesline
Janet laughs.
“Not tonight!” she says,
“just a great dinnah!”
Ruth Major, an oil painter and writer, is working on a collection of poems called “Islander.”
