Catch and Release
by Gloria Viglione

a smile keeps coming to my face
since you wrapped your river-eyed gaze around me—

laughed me into saying yes to coffee—
parted my sea of hesitation with your bliss and now—

I can barely separate your warmth
from the music, the meal, and

I am still smiling since that day at the park when you held
that imaginary fish between your two sinewy hands

showing me just how you let it re-orient
to the dance of the water before releasing it

into the pulse of the black stream’s current,
and I watched your soul wielding its wildness, drawing forward

into the wake of dashing fins, leaning into the season’s reward—

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