Monday, December 26, 2022
Sunday, December 25, 2022
premonition
As if my dream of him was a premonition
Nick sends a photo holding a huge fish
Caught the day after I sent him my vision
But his real fish is bigger than in my dream
Seeing it I laugh delighted but nervous
Enjoying the uncanny coincidence
Tinged with disapproval at the image
Looking like Hemingway off Key West
It looks like he hauled in a giant tuna
A fish that humans are killing off
And now that I know fish feel pain
The thought of those hooks hurts me
My skeptical life partner disbelieves
Declaring it must be photoshopped
Or pulled from some past fishing trip
Doubting the timing sensing a joke
Leading me to think the image is spoof on me
Tricked again by being a gullible person
But Nick assures me no such thing
It’s an amberjack caught that very day
He’s in Hawaii enjoying a family vacation
And always releases whatever he catches
But this fish was given to a local church
To feed the hungry who gather there
Friday, December 23, 2022
witness to their work
Watching twelve young men digging ditches
Thrusting their shovels into the rocky packed soil
Beating out a thumping rhythm hour after hour
Six days a week I am witness to their work
Excavating long trenches around the neighborhood
Such hard labor and yet they are in good spirits
To judge by their exhausted talk at the end of each day
Laughing and joking with each other
They speak Spanish among themselves
Their orange shirts identifying them
Never engaging with the residents here
Nor do I as I stay inside keeping my distance
Two times in my life I have had to do that
Digging just a short distance to bury a water pipe
Never lasting for such long hours as them
Stopping collapsed every muscle done in
No machine could do the digging like they do
Removing the sod carefully then replacing it
Leaving only a faint trace of their toil behind
And giving no hint of where they will go next
But a backhoe would be doing it anyway
If that cost the owner less than their time and effort
Of course these are people who deserve to be well paid
But I expect their wages come dirt cheap
I have the urge to go out and embrace them
Shouting their praises for all to hear
But I practice restraint knowing not to interfere
And instead acknowledge them using these words
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