Lynn White

Gone Fishing

The fish were there

gathered at the shoreline

almost asking to be caught.

But that was then.

They’re all gone now

replaced by plastic

replicas.

First published in Purple Stallion Revue, March 2026

Meeting Your Match

D H Lawrence once wrote

that there were lots of good fish in the sea

but as the vast majority were mackerel and herring,

unless you were mackerel or herring yourself,

you were unlikely to find your fish-mate.

But that was in the teeming wilderness of then.

There are a lot fewer fish now than in his day

and even mackerel and herring are in short supply.

Perhaps that will make it easier to meet your match

amongst the precocious survivors.

But maybe he would have something wilder in mind,

for our times, 

a salmon perhaps.

There are even fewer of them now

so only the wildest will meet their match 

in today's emptying wilderness.

First published in Ultramarine, June 2025