Get Your Premium Membership

Fishing

We set off full of hope into the night as it grew blacker towards the end of the jetty where shorelights dimmed to a distant glow. Wind drove a swell to boom and crash against the pylons below sending a shudder through our feet. The air was bitterly cold. Baited hooks hung in the dark depths on the end of a taut line where every twitch and tug was telegraphed to a finger primed to detect that tell tale pull. The rod ready to be whipped upwards to imbed a hook into an open mouth. We would wait…and wait. An hour would pass. Time meant nothing to my father who would stare into a blank abyss in a trance like silence as if nothing existed outside of his vision into the great beyond. Two hours would pass. Not a single fish would bite. The only break was a pause to renew the bait on hooks. Bored, wanting to go, afraid to enter the sanctity of my fathers dreaming, I entered my own. Propped against the jetty railing, coiled against the cold, I crawled inwards towards my familiar home. Hours later, without a fish, we would walk back along the jetty still in our silence, both of us unable to tell each other where we had been, both of us alone.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2025




Post Comments

Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.

Please Login to post a comment

Date: 3/22/2025 2:17:00 PM
Oh Paul how very beautiful and how very sad ….l felt it all. The last line hits hard and says it all…..As an adult now….where do you think your dad went in his mind? I hope thats not to personal a question…ignore it if it is. Another Paul beauty that l just love! Debx
Login to Reply
Willason Avatar
Paul Willason
Date: 3/25/2025 6:21:00 PM
Thankyou Deb for your sensitive and thoughtful comment.... not sure where the destination was...we all have our private places where we go to get away or connect or to listen to the unexplainable. A touch of mystery is in all of us. Take dear friend, Paul

Book: Reflection on the Important Things