Fish Guts and Blood

A Family Vacation to Remember

Photo by Jennifer Lim-Tamkican on Unsplash

Bumpy dirt road down to a lake,

Back seat of a Plymouth Valiant,

Don’t throw up …

Our first ever family vacation.

We pull up in front of our cottage,

A shack with a screened-in porch.

Screen door hanging from the hinges.

No electricity, no indoor plumbing.

Could be a grand adventure,

But for the outhouse…

And an adolescent girl’s first period.

Why couldn’t we be normal?

Cape Cod or even Misquamicut.

But no, fishing for bullhead

In a rusted-out rowboat,

Fish guts and blood,

Up a creek without a paddle.