Though I welcome their public service,
I don’t feed the ravens.
I don’t increase their offspring by choice.
Though I enjoy the night’s stillness,
I don’t hasten her arrival.
Rather, when I light a candle,
I prolong the light of her rival, the sun.

While I enjoy the river’s coolness,
I keep my head above water.
And though I have, on occasion, grilled trout,
today, after fly fishing all morning along the Black River,
when I hooked a little trout,
I released it
back into the swift-moving waters.