Art
Foster’s ‘On the Pond Levee’
Fortunately, these circumstances have not stopped him from writing. On days when Foster feels the desire to recollect on his life, he loads up his portable generator, his favorite bait (Bryan all meat weiners) and his tackle box and heads to the pond on his lovely property.
VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN)-86-year-old Satartia native and United States Army veteran Dongieux Foster has graciously shared his poetry with us for the last few months. His poetry has usually focused on his experiences as a young soldier stationed far from his beloved Mississippi home.
However, the last couple of years have not been kind to Foster. He was diagnosed with prostrate cancer, COPD, and then suffered a massive heart attack that damaged the left side of his heart and left him fitted with a pacemaker.
Fortunately, these circumstances have not stopped him from writing. On days when Foster feels the desire to recollect on his life, he loads up his portable generator, his favorite bait (Bryan all meat weiners) and his tackle box and heads to the pond on his lovely property.
The following was written recently, April 20, 2021.
ON THE POND LEVEE
I grab my rod, tackle box, and bait
straddle the four wheeler on my way
to the pond levee my favorite place
that old bass should be waiting this day
I stop a moment to watch a squirrel
through the trees from limb to limb
like an athlete on the high trapeze
through the light and shadows dim
two ducks made a low pass overhead
searching for a safe place to feed
landing on the other side at waters edge
to hide safely in a thick clump of weed
as I pinched off a piece of Bryan wiener
and threaded it on a small bream hook
I cast it out about twenty yards or so
the cork never stopped nor even shook
I reeled it in with a copper nose bream
fighting hard and trying to get away
but shortly he was brought to shore
and placed in the fish basket to stay
over and over I caught a dozen more
and soon my bait was almost gone
I saw the grass shaking by the shore
it was a snake about four feet long
he just wanted a taste of my fish
but when he saw the threat of my hoe
and he could not enter the basket
he decided maybe it was time to go
into the water he quietly slips away
my bait is gone and its time to go
I crank up my four wheeler to leave
when up from the brush jumps a doe
she glides through the woods
like a soft breeze and she is gone
then on up the trail with my fish
a short distance and I was home
