Divorce

18 THE MINNESOTA REVIEW JOAN COLBY DIVORCE So you come back all hooks and gutted whitefish, your pockets full of poker winnings. The Indian town perishes in the scrub while you are flying into Red Lake. One night they shot a moose out of season, gorged all day long. And you are hungry now grabbing my body, eyes like small-shot, hands bloody. And I surface with my white fish breasts gleaming, the articulated lures of my legs. You say in that country the pike are so eager they leap for the flash of metal before it hits water. Struggle for death in a beautiful rapacity. O fish, I feel a school of you pour through my veins, eyes agape. Later, flat-out watching a spider glue itself to the ceiling, I say It's not going to work. And you say Nobody's fault, change happens like a door falling offits hinges or a boat filling up with water. We don't talk about neglect, bad nails, the lack of caulking. We don't talk. 19 COLBY In the morning, we plan divisions the way gardeners in spring grub out old stalks in thick beds of lilies. But we are not landspeople anymore. We're traveling perilous waters and floating over the lacy features ofthe drowned. In the Sixties, the Vietnam War was terrible. I left the States. So I was in Afghanistan by the time I got my letter. • mm WW«« o» jutna The U.S. Attorn«; hu Informed ne that you haY« been reported delinquent by Local SelectlTe Service Board 2*-* for failure to report for induction. Failure to obey Instructions of your Local Board nay subject you to proseou- 1 tlon In the U.S. District; Court . ! I would appreciate If you would contact ne at LS 5-7700, Extension 230, between 8:00 an and 5:00 pm In order that arrangements can be nade to clear up your delinquency. Walter Ver Steeg Special Agent - FBI w&¿ r/l ^ii^É^%gl^ Not that he waited around for phone calls. Then came the Seventies. After the American defeat in Vietnam, conscription faded away, and I came home . Agent Ver Steeg was probably filing interstate traffic tickets, or something. Now it's the Eighties. The goddam business patriots want another war. The Draft Board is back. Wake up Walter, you worm! ...