Sunrise with Sea Monsters

by Phoebe Wang

Dressed in our Sunday best we came to pay

our respects but found you out to sea, with no time

to tide over. We’d hoped to share some

idle chat about the fishmonger’s son,

who’s starching his collars in hopes of capturing

the eye of the parson’s daughter

the way the uneasy waves snag the scowl

of the lidless sun. We wanted to swim

alongside your trawlers and drifters, to see you

through all weathers, and to be seen.

Many times you’ve come close to catching us

while schooling cod, skate and Dover sole

on their tacit fates, hauling your worth

in weight towards scalloped dinner plates. We get that

you’re keeping one eye on your shrinking quotas.

That you can’t afford to look away. The light burns

through the lost years the way unpleasant

facts can sear the shell-shocked,

the daydreamers. But you’re wide awake.

There’s a way out of this tangled net.

We’ve already given ourselves up. Now your turn.

We know there are men you call monsters

but we can’t fathom how you tell them
apart from those creatures you claim as kin.