Trout Fishing in Lee County, Virginia by Ben Rasnic

Drove five miles
of meandering 2-lane country road
then parked in the mud
as he made his way
down the embankment
to Martins Creek,
applied some powerbait
to his hook
like a skilled ceramicist
and cast his line
into the shimmering water
like Sandy Koufax
lobbing a warmup pitch
to John Roseboro, then
just as smoothly
reeled in the most beautiful
rainbow trout
I had ever laid eyes upon
and later
when someone would ask him
how big was that trout
that he landed at Martins Creek
he would pause, space his arms
and hands apart
and simply say
“Oh about yay big.”



Ben Rasnic currently resides in Bowie, Maryland. Author of four published collections (three available from amazon.com), Ben's poems have been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize.