L.M. Cole

At the Surface, Show Yourself

I’m spending mornings fishing

for compliments, consequence, 

cleansing on the banks of Lethe

tossing memories into cups

full of other lost concerns

and today I lined an old catfish

I never wanted to catch again

stared into his fisheye face

and thought of the facades 

we use to trick fishers into the catch

in net negative interactions

this fish is still the same fish 

which is honest and brave 

if I’m tipping the scales one way

for another thing I thought of

which is why when confronted 

with the countenance of the catfish

cleverly, all I could say was 

oh, you do exist…