Before We Were Fathers. – LexBlog

When he stepped into the sunshine,

he remembered a young boy

swimming in a lake,

and sitting in an aluminum chair,

fishing for catfish and bream.

The metal stringer lay at his feet,

in the water,

and the caught fish flopped around

for a while.

He remembered looking down

as the sun set,

and he saw the shadowy figure

of a water moccasin slithering

next to his feet.

He ran to the cabin,

and vowed never to put his feet in the lake

again.

The next morning,

the sun reappeared

and the dawn greeted him with a smile,

and he went to the lake again,

to pick up his stringer

filled with fish

he could eat.

When he saw the stringer laying by the chair,

there were only skeletal remains

where the fish had been,

and he realized that the snake

had a meal

during the night.

He got in the car and drove to work.

He remembered the simplicity of youth,

and the eternal cycle of birth

and life,

and death,

as if it all had happened before.