Fishing trip that never happened in Elkhart County Highbanks, Indiana
by Daniel Neff

1. Sew scenery into the hardwood
2. or crochet a landscape:         canoe

1. rushing away
2.                  from your
3.                         hands,
4. dropping your paddle —

1. lost in the highbanks. Each treeface
2. abandoned. Their oak knot-eyes

1. doubling for brains.         I refused
2.          to touch the worms,
3. and we never went fishing again.

1. The sandbar across from Violet Cemetery
2.                 again: dried juniper berries
3.                         tissue the gravel ground.

1. Still, the paddle stalled out of reach —
2.                  gap mouthed bluegill below
3.                  suspended in damp
4.                         dread — and the canoe

1. drifting away from us.

1. I’d dig through all the worms to try
2. this over again —