brother amphibian

A human boy grows scales, fins, gills
while floating in the same stony eddies
where siblings famously fly fished.

_

Trout skipped and fluttered
eager to grace their lines.

_

We old, intrepid eels
seeking, after long lives, a distant ocean
braid the river’s hair in platinum.

_

The small human, now hardly mammalian,
accepts our invitation.

_

Later at sea, almost past the break
and its matted beard of moonfray,
his last tear mercurially sinks.

_

Come no further, I say;
drift home.