Outdoor writing runner-up: Boating a Bass

Blue-green shadows play across

the rough cement of

the boat launch.

From under the dock peeks

a small face of a bass,

sheltering from the sun and the airborne predators.

Suddenly a small, shiny object

flashes in the water,

a candy wrapper

probably dropped from the boat above.

As the bass turns back uninterested

there is a slight tremor and then

a huge wrenching roar.

All the water nearby

is sucked

into the whirling propellers.

Excited laughter.

The boat speeds across the lake

leaving behind only churned up water

and a fragile silvery shape

slowly drifting

down to the bottom of the lake.