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Mussel Memory


by Bill Yarrow


Andreas Cappelanus taught that the word
“love” comes from the word meaning
“to fish.” I used to fish off a bridge 
on the Eastern Shore. There's a picture 
of me on a rampart holding a flounder.
My hair is disheveled and my chest
is puffed. I'm holding the flat fish 
by the tail and motioning to my cousin
who was to die before his daughter
turned two. I had plans that night
to borrow a towel and lie down under
the pier with this blowzy Towson girl
but I didn't know she had sunburned shins
so, as Andreas advised, I let her off the hook. 

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