The Fisherman In The Night
The fisherman in the night
ugly in his loneliness
sees each step he took on the land
as words he should never have spoken
waits for the wind in his sails
waits for the fish in his sleepy net
waits for the next
beat of his heart and the
occult ocean to ask him a question
for which his boat is the answer.
In the night the fisherman
soothed by the sistine swells
(his fish happy in their death
lying like coins in the hold of his boat)
prays to the whales sounding through
submarine horror
prays to the aspic blue
prays to the seagull salt
to keep him safe from storms.
The fisherman, sailing through the night
forgives all those on the land
that have failed to adjust to his madness
wonders if earth ever wants to be sea
do trees float across fields in the rain?
can hills sway in the currents of earth?
do worms and moles, foxes and beetles
swim through the soil as do fish?
do grasses beat on the oxcart like waves
cresting in flower foam?
do the dunes of the desert
rise and fall with the call of the moon?
The night sings and the fisherman
can’t sleep til the ocean rings with the dawn
to announce his mother’s dolphin hunger
his father’s canonical anger
can’t remember the name
that followed him on land
like the taste of dust in his mouth
but calls his boat El Dorado
while the waves that beat on the shore
remember his boat on their back
but fail to bring him to land.
All through the night the fisherman
senses stirring beneath the surface
more than is dreamt of on land
while his boat and the waves talk in voices of
slap and cuff, chatter and gurgle
while the moon turns to gyre and drift
while the waters shift to flood and flux
while the stars arc in flotsam and jetsam
and all who swim surrender
to the current wheel.
The fisherman in the night
suspended by the grace of a
thin meniscus spell
his vessels wooden shell
sees all the nights that have sunk in the waves
names the wind in his face his drink
the creak of his boat his food
the rock of the waves his pillow
the smell of the salt his blanket
the darkness around him his story
the ocean beneath him his anchor.