By vocation a fly-tyer; by avocation a snake wrangler,

he both created and destroyed--a virtuoso of both.

Nymphs, streamers, all pretty under glass,

all deadly, devious, under the blinding sun

suspended above the rushing rapids

rampant with trout and large-mouth bass.

While he was assembling feathers, spoons,

spinners, and other objects of attraction

he angled for the things with which he wrangled;

hooks, tongs, and eagles' eyes;

As he was tramping through the thickets,

next to the music of the rushing rapids,

his thoughts rushed rapidly toward deception:

how to fool a fish--how to make a fish a fool.

Yet, so often the fly-ties failed him

and the fish made him the fool;

and snakes seem to travel at warp speed.

but there is joy, better: jubilation,

in the workshop and in the field

among the rattlers, copperheads, cotton-mouths;

creation and capture, victory, defeat.