April 10 Numpy
A Gift Claimed
He went out
fishing far from shore.
In a drifter called The Blistered Boil:
Nets lay round about the boat
on torpid water.
Kept afloat by plastic;
balls that gently rocked and knocked
against the wooden keel, the tiller
locked and bobbing at the stern.
It held no hand, no hand
to hold and guide the fishing craft
to land, to home, to woman's hearth.
No gift of fish,
no life to give.
An upturned boat
and empty nets.
A Gift Claimed
He went out
fishing far from shore.
In a drifter called The Blistered Boil:
Nets lay round about the boat
on torpid water.
Kept afloat by plastic;
balls that gently rocked and knocked
against the wooden keel, the tiller
locked and bobbing at the stern.
It held no hand, no hand
to hold and guide the fishing craft
to land, to home, to woman's hearth.
No gift of fish,
no life to give.
An upturned boat
and empty nets.