A Gummy Fisherman

A GUMMY FISHERMAN By Kevin L Fairbrother The sheltered bay disguised what was to come Around the headland we hit it head on Four to five meter waves and breaking on top And a wind that was building making lots of spray A man takes many risks for a crayfish on his plate For the pots needed to be pulled from the deep reef Then baited with a fresh lot of stinking fish bait Hoping to lure the wily crayfish into the pot With the sea boiling the boat cut through the waves Sending water and spray every which way The fisherman holding on to keep their feet on deck As the motors strain to keep a forward motion The fishermen search for the buoys in the white water As the rolling sea tosses them about like a cork in a bottle The buoys know sighted make ready to haul the pots up Hoping that they contain a few crayfish for their effort There is no color in the first three pots, they are baited Then tossed back into the rough and deep water The last pot pulled and on the deck contains one small cray Not a keeper, what a bummer, throw him back to grow bigger With head down low kneeling on the deck The rotten bait smells so ghastly get up my nose Dry reaching, pale and feeling quite sick I heave it up and let it flow over the side Boy oh boy did I let the sickness flow Breakfast, dinner and tea all in one go I heaved it up my false teeth went with it Over the side and into the boiling sea Feeling miserable and quite ill, we headed back To the bay and much calmer water I thought about my teeth now in the water Maybe a Gummy shark ate them up? So now I fish the bay with a toothless mouth And I target the Gummy Shark, hoping in vain That one day whilst fishing, I will be lucky And catch the Gummy that has a toothy smile