For Real Toads: the heron and his friend

The Sunday Photo Challenge at the writers' group Imaginary Garden with Real Toads this weekend featured the photos of talented Canadian poet-photographer Kat Mortensen.

I loved her photo of a horse happily looking out the side window of its horse-trailer, but this picture of a fsherman accompanied by a heron caught my heart. It made me think of my sport-fisherman photographer-author father. I'm sure he would have welcomed the companionship of such a bird when fishing one of our local rivers in South Surrey, British Columbia. I was thinking particularly of the Nicomekl River, where I've met (okay, seen) many herons over the years.


*
Fishing’s a hobby for two
So he met his heron friend Blue
Down at the river
Each time he went there
And they told one another what’s new.

“What’s tearin’, Heron?”
“What’s rude, dude?”

“Got any fish?”
“Not many fish.”

“I have a new fly.”
“Worth a try, guy.”

As the fish started to bite,
Some boys came by, lookin’ to fight.
“Hey, don’t you be starin’
 At my friend the heron
’Cause you can’t chew all that you’d bite.”

“Oh, yeah, old man?” yelled out one boy
“That heron’s most likely a toy.”

With that, Big Blue flew at him,
“Hey, wicked boy, can you swim?”

Blue held him under a while
’Til he lost his sarcastic smile.

Then, when all the riff-raff were gone
The man and the heron fished on
Companionably
And successfully
’Til sunset, what started at dawn.