I still have unanswered questions for the hand-sized catfish I pulled out of the Blanco River today.

It was caught in some debris, entangled in some fishing line.

Hard to get to.

Weirdly specific salvation (if you don’t believe in a God who sees stuck fish).

But if you do…

You wonder who was the fisher with the broken line?

When was he last here?

How long has this darkish catfish been stuck in the line?

Will it live? Line cut, hook still in?

The Gospel is chocked full of fish stories.

But they don’t all get saved, hook or no hook still stuck in the craw.

And then there is me: fished out by Jesus, standing wet in the afternoon sun, inventorying fish stories.

• The one about the guy stuck in one for three days…
• The one where the nets broke…
• The one where the fish seems to have swallowed a Roman coin.

…. Caesar’s likeness on the coin in its belly.

….No sign but Jonah

….The empire of Rome long gone

this one small fish wriggles free

marvels at the hidden depths

in the quotidian

stories of being

fished out.