Billie Dee
Waders
Startled trout dart upstream so it’s best to fish down current. Stay clear of the outer bank where the creek takes a turn. You don’t want to fall into a washout hole.
chafing my hip
thump of rainbows within
the wicker creel
About the Author
Billie Dee is the former U.S. National Library Service Poet Laureate. She earned her doctorate at UCI, has won numerous poetry contests, publishes online and off. She lives in the Chihuahuan Desert with her family and a betta fish named Ramon.
I’ve only gone fishing once, and that was off a converted mine destroyer in the Atlantic, nothing caught, but midnight fishing on my own was bliss!
Love “thump of rainbows within the wicker creel” !!!
Alan
Love the economy of this piece.
A washout hole for wound irrigation. Rainbows within the many colors in the back and blue from surgery and wound healing on the chafed hip. Good idea to be extra careful to avoid falling into the stream’s washout hole. How glorious to return to the wild stream and fish rainbow trout; and to fill your mind with the sound of rainbow trout thumping in a wicker basket. I imagine this moment of fishing in waders with trout in the stream and in the creel is also a moment of recovery, return, and triumph.
Take 2:
According to the National Library of Medicine: “Wound lavage or irrigation is a WASHOUT process routinely used during surgery when performing hip, knee and shoulder replacements. It is used to remove contamination and debris from the site of an operation during the procedure. It is seen as a key part of joint replacement surgery.”
the first two lines of the haiku: “chafing my hip | thump of rainbows within” suggest to me injury in the hip, perhaps from joint replacement surgery. In this medical context, ‘thump of rainbows within’ could be throbbing pain and the many colors of ‘black and blue’.
And so the warning to avoid falling in the prose was perhaps prescribed by the surgeon!
And pure delight to shift to the trout filled stream and to realize the thump is rainbow trout in the wicker basket: “thump of rainbows within | the wicker creel”.
And the title, Waders/ those iconic tall waterproof boots, sets the happy scene. I imagine this patient left the hospital with waders on! Way to go!