Portia Steele Award Organization(c)

First Place Winner, Poetry

“Women Fish”
by Kathleen Van Schaick,
Victor, NY

when moon fades
lines fly like wings
of the great blue heron
lay themselves like breath
on river's surface

September sundrops light
on another's taut line
her fish tugs, then
fins cut furrows in the water
its fullness finds her net
they rest

my fish, cast loose
from a young girl's mesh
trails river ribbons
past my stagnant line
to rest reluctantly in my net
a groggy dusk begins