Duck Blind by Michael Goodfellow

Poem title: Duck Blind Poet name: Michael Goodfellow Poem: Jigging mackerel by Heckmans Island, fish tugs the weight of coins, they knew the places to cut or say nothing and wait. Here. Hinge through fresh grease their Yamaha turned in the thick, the bottom wood and cracked polish. Ringless, they moved with their hands and knives to run line, their lives about metal and the shape it made. When we burnt back for the slip our buckets shone with what looked like rocks. When on some shore I saw it; grill of a lobster trap rammed down; driftwood ivoried by wind; piled, salt darkened stone. What was it I asked through outboard drone. She raised an invisible rifle, shuttled bullets in the fall air. I could see that. In the middle a hollow to lie down, barrel pointed through storm bent wire. Past the gut, Fifty Acres to stop what missed. All the while her man kept his hand on the throttle. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Michael Goodfellow Forthcoming in Michael Goodfellow’s debut poetry collection, Naturalism: An Annotated Bibliography from Gaspereau Press, Spring 2022. Michael Goodfellow’s first poetry collection, Naturalism: An Annotated Bibliography is forthcoming from Gaspereau Press this spring. His poems have appeared in Bear Review, The Dalhousie Review, CV2, Prairie Fire, The Nashwaak Review, The Cortland Review, The American Journal of Poetry, Measure Review, Matter, Reliquiae and elsewhere. He lives in Nova Scotia.