FISH TAILS 
                      (Riding by Olsen and Schneider’s plot)


I heard a call, maybe it was a bird
and I turned to see newly dug plots in the old cemetery.
They were friends of Olsen and Schneider’s.

Edwards and Ephraim, had been in a tragic fishing accident,
Not so tragic, said one, the drink got them
and they fell out—the fish got away and they lost their lives
with the snap of a blue tail fly.
They even had Cabela’s--The sportsman’s special.
The truth was, they were way past inebriated before dawn 
and their wives let them know they weren’t going
to fish them out.

(But they did.)

With that angle they had no alternative
and buried them after a brief visit at the morgue
and a talk with the gravedigger.

(A couple of holes and it would be done.)

And so it was, two days later they stood 
at the gates, dressed in the finest fishing vests, 
waders and
polarized sunglasses.

God said,
 you boys are in a world of trouble.
Drinking and pandering. 
You remember Olsen and Schneider 
They finally repented.
Here’s my deal-- if you can go for one day 
without telling
a fish story, then I’ll see. The both 
of you even if one doesn’t.
The River Jordan is over there. Pointing
.

Sure enough.  
In less than a day Ephraim said. 
"That big one got-away."
The rest is archived in Annals of Heaven, 
the Volumes 
too numerous to figure.