—
One day far offshore I asked
the best deckhand I had
how he got to be so good.

He said, many years ago
his father left two boys
in the Alaskan wilderness

with nothing to eat
except a box of Bisquick
and a baited crab ring.

Many nights those boys waited
listening for footsteps
that never came.

They ate a lot of Bisquick,
a lot of crab,
and a lot of berries.

For entertainment
they invented stories
about forest shadows.

He pauses.  That is how
the boys learned to fish
and hunt.