Poetry: Minnows

Here is poem # 12 for the poetry pledge drive. I'm going to click 'publish' before I look at it again and decide I need to change it . . . again.


Minnows

I had made a new friend, someone
Who was just visiting for the day, I wasn't
Used to being the one in charge, I didn't know
Where to go or what to do, so I decided
To show her the minnows

Swimming. The marsh grasses were tall,
The air thick with the smell of sea
Life. I pointed out the tiny creatures

Darting this way and that
In the narrow creek. She'd slipped
From the bank before I could
Catch her, but I did fish her out.
I pulled her mud-slick body back

Up over the edge. Luckily, it was low

Tide and the water only ever got her
Pants wet to the knees. But the mud -
The mud was everywhere. We tracked it

Behind us all the way,
A guilty trail to my grandmother's feet,
Where I got a smack on the fanny before
She sent me home
Alone. Upon reaching my house,

I knocked on my own front door, filthy
And terrified. My mother was already waiting
Towel in her hands like when I'd come in from playing
In the snow. I'll always remember how it felt
To be grounded for the first time.

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