I am the fish
caught and released
and caught again.
I always take the bait.
A hundred holes
freckle my fragile mouth.
Each time, I return
convinced I won’t be
seduced by the wiggling
worm’s easy flesh,
won’t be surprised
by the barbed tang of hook.
Avery M. Guess is a recipient of a 2015 NEA Fellowship for Poetry. A PhD student at USD and assistant editor for poetry at South Dakota Review, her poems appear in Rogue Agent, Mid-American Review, and Thrush. Her chapbook, The Patient Admits, was published by dancing girl press in 2017.