SD Poets You Should Know: Brandyn Johnson

Brandyn Johnson teaches at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, and he writes touching, understated poems about his family—he has several particular affecting poems about his brother in his chapbook in Four Quarters to a Section, published by the SDSPS in 2015. I particularly like this poem of his, from The Puritan:GARBAGEWhen you picked me up earlyfrom school, I thought I was in troubleand I clung to the door handlein the van.I had never been fishing with you before.We pulled off along a dirt roadand carefully cleared a paththrough maplesto a spot you liked.You explained the difference betweenRainbows and Browns while I hookedunsuspecting worms: jabbingthe end through the heador the tailand popping it outa few stripes down.It’s about time you boys startcalling me dad, you said.I lost my first bite, but the secondone stuck,and I won the fight,reeling him to the bankwhere you grabbed him: my first catch.God damn suckerfish,this is a garbage fish.You unhooked him and let me see him—glistening and golden, bloodunspooling from his lip—before smashing him stillon a flat rock.You sent him somersaultinginto the dirt.The speaker of this poem sets up the emotional stakes of the fishing trip with someone I assume is his stepfather or mother’s boyfriend (“It’s about time you…start / calling me dad”), someone who has never taken the speaker fishing before, and the speaker seems proud of his “first catch,” though we’re never told that. The speaker lets the story unfold without commentary, which lets the reader grieve with him as his prize, “somersaulting / into the dirt,” is destroyed by the pseudo-dad. I respond to that straightforward narrative, and I also love the precision with which the process of fishing is described: “I hooked / unsuspecting worms: jabbing / the end through the head … / and popping it out / a few stripes down.” We’re drawn into the scene because the speaker’s reactions are understood, not over-told, and that’s why I earlier called his poem “affecting”—for me, it’s impossible not to be drawn in.Featured image taken by Hans Splinter under the creative commons license on Flickr. Post by Barbara Duffy.Read about more South Dakota poets.