Skip to main content

Anchored, a poem by Dale Patterson

Anchored
by Dale Patterson


Reeds porcupine
the back of grey sky.
Rain dimples the lake.

Minnows are lovers
tucked into drifts
of settling silt.

A pickerel suspends
like a U-boat an inch
from the surface
flexes its gills,
opens a mouth
of pin needle teeth.

Father says
persevere
and curses the bites
of a thousand
mosquitoes.

Jing Ting,
his frog colored lure
again and again.


Bio: Dale Patterson is a visual artist and poet living in Indiana. His work has been published in many online and print journals; the most recent appearing in: Pilgrimage, The Tower Journal, The Museum of Americana, The Lake, Short Fast and Deadly and Midwestern Gothic. A more complete listing of Dale’s work can be seen on his website at http://dalepattersonart.com/