Leo

I can envision you in the distance,
Leathery hands commanding the rod,
Bold, brown eyes sparkling with anticipation,
Your cap’s brim dotted with beads of ocean mist,
Your mind poised to send a signal to your muscles to hook the dawn’s first catch.

Fishing lines are taut;
You are calm and disciplined.
This sport you crave is second nature by now --
As evinced in the lines mapping your mature face,
Deepened with each robust tale about “the one that got away.”

Your wide smile outshines your pride
As if it were a banner proclaiming you “Leo, King of the Sea!”
Your children by nature and nurture marvel at your unflinching mastery,
Witnessing your adventurous maneuvers firsthand
Or seeing the slippery proof piled high in enormous white buckets.

We send out our prayers from distances geographical and emotional
Before and while you venture into the deep without fear.
We imagine you sharing the same-old jokes on a seesawing deck
In the hearty, hiccupping company of fishermen friends
Who, like you, can hardly wait to brag about their yield when they reach home.

Like your brown eyes, mine sparkle, too,
When I become one with the stillness
And feel the universe’s gentle heartbeat,
Waiting for a ripple of genius that slips just out of reach like a nimble, clever fish
If I fail to seize the moment of a creative spark.

From an ocean’s fathoms you discover magical, mobile treasures,
Rewarding your courageous spirit or simply experiencing inner peace.
Your daring and persistence are a legacy that I celebrate --
A fact that I no longer wish to keep to myself because
In my tempered solitude I find the silence to plumb my own depths.