STIRRING
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
DIANE LEBLANC
Fresh trout meant small bones
and my father at the kitchen table
bending over each filet,
a pencil grip on his knife,
and with the blade and one finger
extracting bones like slivers,
then warning us over and over
as we flaked bits onto our forks,
watch for bones or you’ll choke.
If one slipped past, bristling in the throat,
he gave us bread to bind with bone
and made us swallow both,
so to this day I can’t eat fish
without first shredding it,
searching for what may not be there,
still hearing in my father’s caution
not quite fear,
almost love.
Diane LeBlanc is a writer, teacher, and book artist with roots in Vermont, Wyoming, and Minnesota. She is the author of The Feast Delayed (Terrapin Books, 2021) and four poetry chapbooks. Poems, essays, and reviews appear in Bellingham Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Cimarron Review, Green Mountains Review, Mid-American Review, and Sweet Lit, among others. Diane is a holistic life coach with emphasis in creativity practice. She teaches writing at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Read more at www.dianeleblancwriter.com .
