A Boy's Dream

He is small, maybe seven,
and he is running on the sand.

The sun is not hot, and the water is not
cold and the beach is not a beach

but a lake with yellow fish swimming
round and round in it.

How will the fish not get caught, he wonders
as a net, thrown by his unseen father, appears,

billows out as if in slow motion and floats
down toward the water, toward the fins

which begin to scatter as the boy yells to the fish
but he is too late and the net falls on the water

with a splat and the weights
on the net carry it down

and the boy is afraid to look
afraid to continue to sleep

afraid to scare himself
awake.

First published in Nimrod, Fall/Winter 2004
reprinted with permission of the author
 

© Michael Glaser