April Poetry: Daily I fall in love with fishermen

In recognition of Poetry Month, and to celebrate our treasure trove of Orcas Island poets, Orcas Issues is pleased and honored to offer daily poetry during April.

Daily I fall in love with fishermen

After “Daily I fall in love with Mechanics” by Susan Thurston)

Daily I fall in love with fishermen

With their carhart tuxedos and diesel perfume
And expensive waterproof boots

I love how they leap from dock to deck
Their seadog legs taking flight
Like fat frogs

I feel their muscle-bound shoulders
Strong and unfailing
As the Wailing Wall
Their fingers roughly crocheting and embroidering
The nets and traps that strain with the
Health of the catch
Their hitch in their get-along from past mis-steps and broken leaps

Daily I fall in love with fishermen

With their curt, austere language
And black and white take on life and death
And their hoorays and hallelujahs
Over good weather
Fair sailing
Hard work
And big catches

I love how they treat their friends
With blind bonhomie
The comradeship of the straightforward
In the inarticulate, all-powerful sea

They untie lines – prison-heavy chains though they may be
And sail away

Not in dogged footsteps
But in gliding, churning swoops

They have girlfriends or wives or children or mothers
They wipe kisses away with oil-blackened fingers

They know that, unlike time and tide,
The girlfriends and wives and children and mothers
Will wait

Patience being the perfect prayer

And give their men to the sea

The left behind can only pray and pay the bills

Their cigarettes dangling from muttering mouths
The smoke squinting their eyes
Always giving back-hand homage to never-ending pain

Daily I fall in love with fishermen
They are cavemen and poets
Living real life
And dreaming of a better one

And they always leave something more to want

© Margie Doyle