Plain text:

Trap Line

by George Vukelich

The winter man works

through this slough

trapping the mink

and the muskrat too.

This is lonely windswept land.

Windrowed ice and frozen sand.

The man will leave

a deep shoe track

packing out pelts

upon his back.

When the ice fields rot

in widening gaps

the man picks up the

steel jawed traps

and spring floods out his trail.

The man will return

in waders or boots

to watch Canadas resting.

Blue teal.

And the coots.