Fisherman Mourned By His Wife
Fisherman Mourned By His Wife Patrick Fernando When you were not quite thirty and the sun had not tanned you into old-boat brown when you were not quite thirty and had not begun to be embittered like the rest, nor grown obsessed with death, then you would come hot with continence upon the sea chaste as gull flying pointed home in haste to be with me ! Now that, being dead you are beyond detection, and I need not be discreet , let us confess it was not love that married us nor affection, but elders’ persuasion, not even loneliness, recall how first you were so impatient and afraid, my eyes were open in the dark unlike in love, trembling, lest in fear, you would let me go a maid, trembling, on the other hand for my virginity. Three months the monsoon thrashed the sea, and you remained at home; the sky cracked like a shell in thunder, and the rain broke through . at last when pouring ceased and the storm winds fell, when gulls returned new plumed, and wild, when