Yellow Mama E zine

Chumming for Shark

 

by Daniel G. Snethen

 

            Oregon Coast—Depoe Bay

            Dawn treated the entire family

            to a boat ride on the Pacific

            looking for whales.

 

           My three-legged dog

           trembled on his landlubber legs.

           Karen remained glued midship

           to her bench holding, comforting Knightly.

 

           I paid little attention to what

           extended family and friends were doing.

           I am an inland naturalist and naturally,

           I was scanning for seabirds and whales,

 

          all the while adjusting to the swales,

          hoping I dropped neither

          cellphone or binoculars over the edge

          of our tiny bark on the cresting sea.

 

          Dawn’s stomach and intestines

          were fighting the tumultuous ride.

          But, she withstood the urge to regurgitate.

          That is until the man beside her afflicted

 

          with the same lack of intestinal fortitude,

          emptied their contents into the watery abyss.

          Dawn followed suit, as strangers in solidarity,

          took turns chumming for shark on the choppy sea.

 

          Daniel G. Snethen is an educator, naturalist, moviemaker, poet, and short story writer from South Dakota. He teaches on the Pine Ridge Reservation at Little Wound High School in the heart of Indian Country. 

​

       Bernice Holtzman’s paintings and collages have appeared in shows at various venues in Manhattan, including the Back Fence in Greenwich Village, the Producer’s Club, the Black Door Gallery on W. 26th St., and one other place she can’t remember, but it was in a basement, and she was well received. She is the Assistant Art Director for Yellow Mama.