The young lobsterman at the bar
Quotes Eliot and Proust
And talks about tough
The kind of tough that is life out here
The life that no one respects
Unless you spend a week out fishing
Puking like he did there by the lines
Everyday for a week until he didn’t anymore
And joined his father and learned to fish
A contentment and contempt
For this island where there is nothing here
A young man might want
A restlessness that by March
Makes us all a bit stir crazy
Out looking for something
To stir up some trouble
On the mainland
He writes poetry in coffee shops
Where you can get away with such things
And not be laughed off the island
Where people call tough a misplaced cell phone
Or intermittent cell service
Where work is expected to be easy
And respect doesn’t need to be earned
Navigating Through Change 
Thanks for this portrait. There’s a good story. Wish I could hear it.
LikeLike