Tag Archives: California

February 10, 2017

The Fisher

	The Fisher
661	Out on Ventura’s wooden pier,
	The fisher cast his line.
	The bait of squid, both pale and clear
	Reflected sun’s first shine.
665	Some silent groups of grizzled men
	In old and tattered hoods
	Had rods stacked neatly in their rows
	To catch more if they could.
	So nothing was unusual
670	For fisher on that day.
	He fit right in, just indistinct,
	A smelly, coffeed stray.
	But maybe that squid had a fate
	Submersed beneath the sea,
675	For as it hit the water’s foam
	Out jumped an enemy!
	It rose! Its body, twelve feet long,
	So huge, it seemed so near.
	Its dorsal fin arced through the air
680	Then crash! It disappeared.
	“Did you see that?!” The fisher screamed,
	And broke the silent pact.
	And though the group looked down on noise
	A couple came to chat.
685	The fisher said just what he’d seen.
	His line was taut as hell.
	And though the others had their doubts,
	They stayed and were compelled.
	The fisher fought as the crowd grew,
690	For tourists heard and came.
	A throng of forty intrigued fans
	Propelled the stray to fame.
	An hour passed, the burden grew.
	The fisher dripped with sweat.
695	He doffed his jacket, then his shirt.
	His arms were gleaming wet.
	And then they saw the trophy fish,
	A great white shark in flesh.
	It surfaced with its giant nose
700	And puffed its fishy breast.
	The shark resisted with great force.
	The fisher strained and moaned.
	All other fishers cut their lines;
	The pier was his alone.
705	At first it led him ‘round the pier,
	But soon, and as it fought,
	It zig-zagged ‘tween the pylon trunks
	And tangled up a knot.
	The monster was so very stout,
710	And now the line was caught.
	An hours-long grand spectacle
	Had finally been lost.
	The fisher cut his storied line.
	The shark then swam away.
715	The crowd stood staring at the fish
	Escaping from the fray.
	Some fishing stories don’t seem real,
	For men embellish tales.
	But that day there were witnesses
720	Who saw him catch a whale.