Notes About The Poem
For 2025 Poetry Marathon Qualifiers Final Placement Poetry Contest sponsored by Mark Toney
Tales of the Checkerboard Trout
I
I'd say I'm a fisherman beyond compare.
Let me tell you, friend, what I caught there
on the bank of a wild mountain stream,
when, at once, a sun ray and silver moon beam,
like a dream, caught me by surprise,
under blue skies, when I was a boy of your size.
It was the one and only (there could be no doubt)
rare and elusive, checkerboard trout.
II
I caught the checkerboard trout, it is true,
but I'll tell you the truth. Please keep it with you.
The poor little guy was the last of his kind.
Now he's hiding in a place no one can find.
This is a secret, among only us three.
You see, I threw him back. I set him free.
III
Once, I was swimming in the stream by a pool,
when I spied a fisherman (a bit of a fool)
through the water top's sunshiny shimmer,
a fellow whose hopes weren't even a glimmer.
And as I was saying. Listen up trout-boy -
use your checkerboard style to bring joy.
No one can catch us. All that can be caught
is the happiness that we have brought.
IV
Little Barney, I'm afraid,
brought home another failing grade.
All this has changed for the better.
Now, teacher says he's a go-getter.
Barney brought for show-and-tell
water from a pool like a wishing well,
"This is the water, pretty sure, I am,
wherein the checkerboard trout once swam".
V
Children, it's time for me to go away,
whether to Hell to burn or Heaven to play,
because, eighty years ago today,
I gave the checkerboard trout's secret away.
I made a trade with the devil, and I'm afraid,
now is the time that it must be paid
unless I could think of that one magic word,
which Grandpa spoke to me, which I once heard.
I wish that I knew it, but I don't, so I say with a sigh,
eat all of your spinach, and I bid you goodbye.
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