Headed into a memory of when
my heart took me trout fishing,
the stream made me dizzy
and remained faithful for
twenty-five vermilion
fly catchers, the way
the birds hold the wind.
The gusts waved and roared
misshaped by a gray hawk in
raced thunder, amok songbirds ruffled
in the whirl like apples, like
a star, up there.


From pages 147-148 of The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand by Jim Harrison (Grove Press, 2001).