The Fisherman
I tried it from the breakwater,
swung my long rod over my head,
tossed my line into the waves,
but all I caught in five hours
was a condom. I blamed the sulphur
seeping from the earth there,
tainting the air and possibly the sea.
I went to the next breakwater,
joined the jostle of anglers.
All, except me, hooked a fish.
So I took my rod to the port
in Mangalia, walked the pier,
set up by the old lighthouse
above where the trawlers dock.
I saw a perch-pike jump once
but my hook missed it. My worms,
I thought, and dumped them,
bought the best prawns instead.
Still no biters at the pier-side,
so next day I hired a boat,
phutt-phutted well away from land,
flung my line out and drifted
but the only movement was the swell
as a storm got up, making me
scarper for shore and barely make it.
I decided I was done with the Black Sea
or it had done for me. Maybe
one needed to be local, so I retreated
inland a handful of metres,
took my position among the men
who haunt the lakeside there.
For sure, it felt like a demotion –
saltwater for fresh – but I learned
the art of horizontal rodding,
and how a small seat is useful,
and a plastic bag in the water
keeps the caught fish alive,
and how essential it is to start early –
and, of course, the stupendous sense
of having multiple rods, all
sticking out in parallel. Today,
for example, I have four, and still
I’ve caught nothing, but the line on one
shook twice, and tomorrow I’ll arrive
at 6, with eight rods, all of them red,
and a giant plastic bag for the fish.
Page(s) 8-9
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