DANA YOST

Pontoon Dream

In my mother’s house,

a photo of my father holding

a walleye in both hands.

My father grins, almost a proud boy again,

his eyes a squint under white cap.

I dreamed of this yesterday,

of my father knowing how to glide

a pontoon softly between reeds,

hover it over hungry fish,

use the right silvery lure,

and, with cigarette between lips,

give a light flick.

Dana Yost is the author of four books, most recently Good Shepherds, published by eLectio Publishing of Dallas. He was a 2012 nominee for a Pushcart Prize in poetry, and his poems have appeared in many journals and magazines, including Verse Wisconsin, New Plains Review, Vagabond City, Big River Poetry Review, Still Point Arts Quarterly, Bare Root Review, Red Booth Review, Pyrokinection, Relief, New Verse News and Dandelion Farm Review. He was an award-winning daily newspaper journalist for 29 years and has lived his whole life in the rural Upper Midwest.