Little Lobster Boat

Encounter By the Sea

By: Melissa de Haan Cummings - May 27, 2016

Little lobster boat
tilted in the mud
by the wall
for blue bottom paint
will tilt the other way
for the starboard side
Tide will float her off

Bamboo is up
shooting leaves
Lilac blossoms
Marsh grass crosses
the road in a semi circle
at the full

Two trucks facing trees
and each other
parked

Can you do me a favor?
Zip up my coat?
We can make that happen
Thanks
What are you
going to The Arctic?

Tiny leaves
look like
pale green feet

Star of sun
through filling maples
bring June

I got to get my boat ready
How?
Paint it
Change the name
To what?
Yaya
That means grandma in Greek
No
What people yell when they're happy
O  Yah Yah
With maybe a beer can
painted on it
What' the name now?
Antrella
But we're all done
We're divorced
You still hang out
Yah  We try to be friends
That don't always work

Tide's coming in

He found him half in the boat
half in the water
with lines around him
as if he was setting
and had a heart attack
Head up  Or down
He would have said
if his head was down
His friends don't want
to believe it was suicide
He was very depressed
being taken to court
for returning bottles in Maine
The fine could have been
a hundred thousand dollars
They never said why he died
I see his brother down town
Nothing bothers him
Says what a wonderful day!
Awesome! 
Makes me feel good to see John

I may have to pick up my girlfriend
She's a landscaper
She threw up at work
She's tough
But it costs me every time she texts
She don't need to text
to tell me she threw up

You look like John Chandler
Yah twenty years ago
We do have something in common
Mingling  Ha!  Ha!
We both married Katy Moore
Yah but you planted the seed
O Isabel is yours?

Those guys downtown are crazy
If you're new they cut your buoys off
If you set on top of them
they cut your line and tie a knot in it
warning
I was with Williamson
He had the block
weaving back and forth
knocked him down
I put it in neutral
picked him up
I had to put my fist in his face
You were young
Seventeen
He wanted me to take
the traps on the ends
and put them in the middle
Makes an awful mess
I wouldn't do it
He says You're not gonna
be around next year!
I says I'm not gonna
be around tomorrow!
You get ashore
they're all different
Wanna go for a beer?

Wind's coming up

I fell off the A Frame
What's that?
Holds the nets
About fifteen feet
off the deck
I felt light headed
landed on the rail
went in the water
They almost couldn't get me out
had to take off my clothes
It was February
so I had two heavy sweatshirts on
Boots?
No
When they got me up
the ambulance was waiting
Where were you?
Pigeon Cove
If we'd been fishing
I wouldn't have made it
Why not?
They would've had to haul the gear in
turn around
I might not've still been afloat
Couldn't they just stop?
If they turned right around
the gear would get tangled
might turn the boat over
They would've risked their own safety

My grandfather when I'd come over
Hey!  How ya doing Joe?
Want something to eat?
The last time he was eating a sandwich
sitting down said Hi
finished his sandwich
went in the living room
was laughing at the TV
saw a dog looked like the dog
of a girl he used to know
The girl didn't look like the girl
It was the dog looked like her dog
I shook his hand
I said I'll be over soon
Gave Nana a hug
That night he went to bed
Two hours later
Nana checked him
He was dead?
No  He was covered with sweat
Did she call nine one one?
O yeah

He fished ten days three off
Forty five years
Except for the two
he took off to carpenter
Yah!  He three the check
on the table didn't open it
said I know exactly
what it's for
I'm going fishing
Fifty thousand pounds
I get sixteen I'm wiped out
Didn't retire until his sixties
And still he was active
In the garden Cooking

You ready to go?
I might have to pick up
my girl friend