The Lure of the Sea
The unnerving lure of the sea
abducting the mind of old fisher
on the quay where he mends his nets
passing thread through openings
which fish use to escape his
trap, the inexplicable attraction
of waves, undulating like breasts
of nubile, waves he battled year
after year when young and in his mind
he sings for the salinity rusting his
bones, for his wrinkles the sea has
graced him with and the beauty
of the earth for which he sang. while now,
ready and content he smiles as
he mends his net not that he’ll
go out fishing again, not this
old fisherman doesn’t go fishing anymore
he only wishes to go out there and
to welcome Thanatos alone when
the fisher’s time comes; he too
has traveled along the peninsula,
such short was the rope allotted
to him, such a short distance he was
allowed to traverse to worlds
familiar and not imaginary, he too
dreamt of faraway foreign lands
that Fate didn’t let him visit, and
now, alone under the conflagrating
merciless sun, he mends his net
thinking that Fate granted him
the dream and his capable hands
which mend his net while the attraction
of the sea intoxicated him with sounds
of birds and sounds of watery beasts
and the lone tear he now sheds
for the unjust destiny which left him
to be remembered as number 38
in the long list of the island mortuary
Libros Libertad 