Take Me Back

Hot dry summer 1990

Floating down the Yakima

          occasionally being trolled

          by a catfish, who by on his

          own account the story

          may differ

Beer in hand, enjoying the

          blissful ignorance of

          youth

Unaware of the pollution beneath

          the water’s surface,

          undoubtedly choking the

          life from my catch

Oblivious to the cancer slowly

          embedding itself in my

          skin, evening the score

          in favor of my ugly little

aquatic foe

Not forewarned of the war

          to come- The lies, the

          bloodshed and its epic

          return

While ignoring the radioactive

          waste dumped within

          walking distance