Wheelhouse

from headphones in the wheelhouse

his mind awoke at a twenty-pound

salmon standing vertical on its tail

a moment twenty

dollars easy a pound at retail paying

for the fuel then the silvery sheen

of a seal twisting in air

to resume pursuit downriggers down

for a shallow troll he had been musing on

hand on her knee

how the West was won by covered wagons

jolting across endless prairie

one hand on the rein another

on her knee toll roads, railroads, fences

following them like wolves

invisible

now though seas are calm there’s a war unseen

against those who trespass out West

Dick Russell

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