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Catch and Release 
Now as the ice begins its slow 
spring shrinking from the lakeshore, 
fishermen will drop anchor and like spiders 
cast their lines, and the boys will be found, 
the two who disappeared one November 
storm ago. When they are discovered, 
their families might finally be released of their grief, 
finally free to let them go, only to find that a different 
ache will lure them, and they will know 
there is no getting beyond the pull of the shore. 
And the boys-they are tired of floating 
under the water's thick shell, tired 
of sturgeon gnawing their skin, tired of their 
thin and drifting hair, of hands grasping 
at prayers. They'll be glad to be found 
if the dead are glad of anything- 
after all those months of freefall, 
the second rising that always comes in spring. 
Karla Huston 
[previously published in The Cape Rock and in the chapbook Catch and Release]
Poet's Statement 
In November 2003, two Oshkosh boys had gone duck hunting on Lake Winnebago
only to be caught in a late November storm-rain, ice, high winds. While their
bodies were not found, their boat and dog washed ashore. The following spring,
I 
was thinking about how the ice was melting off the lake and that the boys
would 
likely be discovered by early-season fishermen. That's where the poem began.
My 
thoughts were with the families of the boys and their grief. Coincidentally,
the day 
I wrote the poem, one of the bodies was located in the morning and the other
was 
discovered later that day. 
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