By Richard L. Matta
In therapy I realize what fishermen mean
when they talk about fishing line test strength
By that I mean when you cast out to catch
the impossible past you add more weight
to get deeper, a bigger hook to stick better
and at some point, when you reel in
you exceed the line’s strength and it snaps
like your mind, leaving a tangled nest
Then shock and cognitive therapy cut off
some of that weak frazzled line hopefully
untangle the rest and of course during all this
I lost my tolerance and tried it once again
after I got out and thank Christ for Narcan
and a good Samaritan and Teddy (my bear)
is in my backpack and we walk the beach
five times a day just to stay in touch with
what’s real and I pull him out for a moment
and tell him all those who’d like to tell me
I’m weak and selfish to do what I did
kiss my ass because they have their limit of
test line strength too but we know how to fish.
Richard L. Matta lives in San Diego, California. Some of his most recent works will be published in Slipstream and Glint Literary Journal, and a few of his published pieces are in Hole in the Head Review and San Pedro River Review. Richard was raised in New York’s rustic Hudson Valley and is a Notre Dame graduate.