Night fishing

It’s Saturday night and I just got paid

The lines of the song come to me

As I walk down the street

A certain swagger

A nervous demand on self

To look, to feel the part

Because I am out

In the night

Set to conquer

To overcome

To find that which seems illusive

It seems an ill conceived notion

Amongst the busy street

Of people and of colour

A place where I always feel like just another

 

Taxis turning sharply in mid flow

Car horns and flashing lights

Bounce off pavement

Bounce off walls

Hanging in the still night air

Bombarding senses

As we hit the street

 

One lad is shouting at a mate

A bunch of girls giggling

Its summer and the warm breeze

Is blowing off the sea

When my cousin my friend and I

Walk into the place

Of dance and multicoloured layered lights

Undisguised and petulant delights

Flights of fancy pass the bar flitting back and forth

Across our vision

As we the fishermen

Cast our eyes, cast out our lines

Watching waiting patiently

Waiting for that moment

Among the dancing gyrating fish

Moving rhythmically round their handbags

Some in circles

Some in pairs

Others in complicated kind of squares

Then at that moment pulling in the line

My cousin hauls in his catch

A slow sway intimate cheek by jowl follows

Before disappearing into the night

Down to the beach

Just him and her

 

Sometime later when we are tired

And the night is long

We head for the car and he shows

A cheeky grin across his face

A nod and a smirk

Is all it takes

As we the night fishermen return

Home in silence to find new lines

And repair our nets

To talk of tales not done

Thinking of the ones that got away

The one that had two teeth missing

Who drank pints of lager and black

And prays for someone whose eye

Whose line next time

Will catch her in his net

Night fishing