ones that got away
there was fish in the basement freezer
bluegills caught in the mississippi
taken home and cleaned
filleted and carefully placed in ziplocs
each dated by way of sharpie
each day a story unto itself
each story a small piece of the life
and times of a solitary man
long removed from
an ordinary working life
if you don’t move you will die
he told his son
carefully stepping down the stairs
unlocking freezer door with key
he kept hanging on a nail
fearful the fish might one day escape
and find their way back home
september two thousand eighteen
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