With his son...Daphnis
casting through the trees
into dark and murky water
taking the line from him
to un-stick it from the bottom
Pahn pulls up a large object
that looks like a rock
but is too light to be stone
It must be Styrofoam
that has been stained
to the core
by the mud
of all these years
of lying on the bottom
A woman across the lake
single
and childless
not distracted by love
focused
professional
is quietly doing well She walks by
passing out of sight
Pahn takes the tackle
baiting the grapnel hook
with Feta cheese
Wading into the water A teenage girl comes by
to cast further walking across the water
greeting in French
he swims back
to the deeper end A second comes by
speaking French
and casts his line with a few Spanish words
Pahn asks her if she is American
There are two large and she says “yes”
beautiful (Her mix of languages
dark fish gave her away)
circling around Pahn
One of them strikes the bait
and he yanks the line
to settle the hook
He doesn’t see at first Pahn is looking for something
where he has hooked it
but when he takes it Egairia as a little girl
to show his family is walking around him
his wife (Aiks) asks him Eendekoi as a little boy
why he had to catch it is walking around him too
And when he asks The children are running
if he should let it go back and forth
she says
that having Pahn is rummaging around
caught it in a shoe box
damaged it for a present
they should eat it for Egairia
and Eendekoi
And then he sees
that the hook has torn off
one of its gills among the toy cars
showing its many tiny bones harmonicas
and the tiny heart inside skeletons
plastic hearts
and livers and lungs
Finally he looks down
and sees at his side
a little girl
with a rifle
on her shoulder—
Annie Oakley
as a child
and he thinks
this is the perfect gift
for them
.
.
