Reading by the Iowa River

The hairs on my arm

Raised alarm. 

Ahead are pedophile-like whiskers

And pallid lips.

Ogling while I gulp coffee and read poetry

Is the pervert fish.

Duck, he can’t risk hard evidence, he’s

Been caught before.

His finely tuned sense of smell lets

Him hunt late.

He is a channel cat, Ictalurus punctatus,

Creepy fish.

That old bastard will resurface

Later.

Why am I a mouse?

Fish?