Angler

Angler tell me

Why are you angry?

You sit and you scale

The fish you devour

Though somehow

I can’t see your mouth

Has your face flown away

With seagulls at bay,

Or tossed overboard with the guts?

Tell me

What is so saddening?

You are clipping and weighting

The lines of my ecstatic joy.

What tragedy

Could this suffering be

Linked to?

Your lidless eyes

See the lines all askew

Why me?

I am the receptacle

For your stories

Not of the sea

Of these tortured dreams.

These things that you speak,

Of hell they do reek

Your shredded lips undulating

With the cresting of waves

A satanic rhythm

That fills up my page

Why do you mouth

Paintings of pain

On your skiff in the sun

Someday you will sift

And notice your life

Left aloof

A-lif’

Ahhhhh, life.

Angler tell me

Why are you fishing?

It's no secret

Your hate for the creatures

And this puddle of tears

You trudge through without end

In search of your fears.

Angler,

To you it's a mystery

This catch and release concept

Applied out of pity.

Your hole-saw eyes

Space blankly

As your crooked fingers

Build hooks

Deconstructing aquatic life.

Please do tell me,

When can I leave?

Soon may me make landfall

That I may escape your diseased presence,

Your sightless eyes illuminate

All the things in me

I know you are seeing

Truth is the pain that created my Angler

Twice that of salt or jellyfish sting

And one day I know

On that door to my soul

A sign will decree

"Gone Fishing"