At the Fiesta of the Fisherman,
off Marblehead, they row,
they race seine boats,
a motley crew of them:
Anglo-Saxons, Nova Scotians,
Portuguese, Sicilians.

They row in communion
with the ocean,
in communion with the giver
up of sustenance,
cod, scrod, haddock,
flesh of the sea,

men rowing with Nature,
indivisibly.

Philip Kuepper
17 August 2014