Jake's Flea Market

further downriver
before the old man 
mates with the bow 
and passes its genetics and its defects
as an inheritance
into its south saskatchewan* offspring

to either side in winter
stubble on the faces of sleeping 
fields whose crops were last shaved in october   
protrude through thin sheets of snow 
or lie snuggled under heavy blankets

like an addict in a skid row alley 
who sleeps away the worst of a hangover
or the worst of an overdose 

under a thick coat of ice that keeps
its veins thawed
the old man sleeps

in its arteries trout
designed by those of us who use
coal ingredients in metal and iron and warmth

whitefish designed by those of us who eat
hormone ingredients in meat 
and fertilizer ingredients in bread and vegetables

walleye designed by those of us who eat and drink
and consume cures and postponements of dying

there pike appear 
to have been disassembled and reassembled
by pin the tail on the fish
preschoolers
blindfolded 

*Old Man, Bow, South Saskatchewan: Rivers that flow through Southern Alberta, Canada.