Mary Mestecky
The Retirement of the Cornish Fisherman
No more wet and windy risings in the early dark for me;
I am deaf to fishes calling and the summons of the sea;
Solid rocks’s beneath me, I can feel its steady beat;
I have shaken off my sea-chains and I’m free.
No more riding out the storms in a beleaguered fishing fleet
When you cannot keep your footing and you cannot see for sleet
When the terror of the mountain waves encompasses you whole
And Davy Jones is waiting at your feet.
No more sailing through the icefields in the green seas of the Pole
Where the Arctic silence fills you with a dread you can’t control
While the black skies up above vibrate with everlasting light
And below you feel it pulsing through your soul.
No more idle days in port because you’ve lost your will to fight
To take your ship to fish where you have always had the right
To watch those foreign johnnies land the catch that’s meant for you
And have to keep your feelings clamped down tight.
The time has come to leave it to the ever-dwindling few
Prepared to go to sea with a red-tape bandaged crew;
I’ll be weeding in my garden - watching football on TV
And I won’t give a toss for what they do!
No, there’ll be no early risings in the chilly dark for me;
No more life and death advertures in the power of the sea;
I can feel the pulse of granite growing strong beneath my feet;
I have thrown away my sea-chains and I’m free!
Page(s) 5
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