Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Mikaela Castledine #353 Juvenilia

I’m looking up old poems
feeling those soft familiar lines
seeing if I
can still get into them
and if I can
whether they will still
look any good


Catfishing

Written 30 years ago when I was 22

There is the gas lamp
hissing and swinging
singing to fish
water deaf and dumb
to come
slide on out
from deep water tonight

the spear
instant trident metal dead
one
two
three
in the shallows

I carry the bucket
coiled with long fish
no more
slide on out
from seaweed for the moon
tomorrow the gulls
will have your strip of bone
and you’ll be flying


2 comments:

  1. I really like this and I know what you mean by trying to get into old poems (I've got plenty). The only think that confused me as I was reading was 'slide on out /
    from deep water tonight' — are you describing going into deeper water from the shallows or the other way round?

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  2. When we were kids we would go fishing for cobbler with my father, along the beaches of Rottnest island where we spent our holidays. Cobbler come from the deep water into the shallows at night and could be speared with a gidgie. You needed the spear, a gas lamp and a bucket to carry the catch. Sadly or safely gidgie fishing is no longer allowed.

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