STEVE HICKOFF

Catch & Release

I’ve pulled your body
of slime and scales
from the sea with its future
jackpot of 10,000 eggs.

Forgive me, I pray
to no god I claim to know
and so then, I let you go.

First moving you back
to the moment before
you took the bait
as a person is baptized
in the holy water of nothing
in primal waters of the moment.

And I watch you cough back
as a child is born,
aware of the morning light
with red gills flaring,
to swim off under
your own power…
a kind of forgiveness.