ON THE DRAG - Poem

 

ON THE DRAG

 

(copyright 2016, by Dave Kiffer)

 

 

 

It was always hard to leave the grounds

 

When someone else was still dragging

 

 at the perimeter of the night

 

   

 

You wanted to quit,  to find the release

 

When the diesel sputtered to a halt

 

And the rattle died in the trees

 

 

 

The sooner you stopped

 

The sooner the fish would be iced

 

The sooner sleep would come

 

     

 

But you knew that if someone else

 

Was still trolling into the dark

 

There was a still a last king out there

 

     

 

So you stayed on the drag

 

Until it became too deep to see,

 

You had to coil the lines by brail

 

 

 

Now there is no one left out there,

 

They have all  pulled their lines,

 

Entered the harbor one last time

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