offally bad
pungent and blood shoot red
swapping yarns as we jagged with home made treble hooks
The flash of an elusive kahawai evading the lure
hand over hand
jerking taut for the hook-up
sometimes successful
Not like the boys from Manukorihi Pah
whose sugar bags bulged and wriggled
while I, a novice
vainly jiggled
In the season the whitebait ran
along the banks where white boards submerged
revealed their illuminated bodies
not enough in the can for a feed
Not like the Mokau
where kerosene tins of the bait
captured by the shoal
reward for those who chose to wait
in the early grey light of a Taranaki morning
It was the Waitara where a flounder
captured the imagination of bigger things,
a bonding place, of solace and muddy meditation
Roger Smith
August, 2018
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| Whitebaiters #1 - Artist: Roger Smith |
