Kicks

The fishermen on Lake Michigan, sometimes,

For kicks, they spit two hunks of bait on hooks

At either end of a single length of line

And toss that up among the scavenging gulls,

Who go for it so fast that often two of them

Make the connection before it hits the water.

Hooked and hung up like that, they do a dance

That lasts only so long. The fishermen

Do that for kicks, on Lake Michigan, sometimes.

Anonymous submission.

Howard Nemerov was born on February 29th, 1920 in New York. He died of cancer at his home in University City, Missouri on July 5th 1991.