Ann Alexander
Why Newlyn fishermen can’t swim
Safe ashore, they pour down pints
in quantities that beggar all belief,
empty their pockets of the pay-off wad,
crawl home, anaesthetised
against the knowledge of what waits.
On shore, they sing, shout,
fuck after a fashion. All things fine
have gone the way of childhood, in this town
where rockbox houses cling to cliffs.
On land, they smoke and snort
as much of this or that as they can score,
in sideways-shifty pubs along the quay.
Trying not to think about the way
the black Atlantic flings a boat about,
as they, sober as Witnesses, are taught
the truth that force ten weather teaches men;
sleeping-waking fully dressed on boards,
soaked through and shaking,
all for a weight of fish.
And if the seventh wave should catch them
and they tumble into that far
notch-above-a-bollock-freezing sea,
they know their curse would be
to know the way to swim,
when truly there’s no way to swim,
no hope, no guiding star.
Page(s) 73
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