Sucker ~ A Pantoum

“Aye lad, the evidence was on it real good”

He said with a crooked, half-toothed smile;

he said it like a fishless, fisherman would,

like a cop on a crime just brought to trial.

.

He said it with a crooked, half-toothed smile

in his way, a sweaty, short, salty sailor sort.

But like a cop on a crime, just brought to trial:

“Goin’ back out thar, soon as we’re in port”

.

He was sweaty and short, a salty sailor sort,

balancing a knife, by the point, in his hand,

“Goin’ back out thar, soon as we’re in port.”

“S’more down below than sea and the sand.”

.

Balancing a knife, by the point, in his hand,

with a tear in the eye for his love lost at sea

“S’more down below than sea and the sand.”

“I ‘spec thar’s an octopus twixt she and me.”

.

With a tear in the eye for his love lost at sea,

he said it like a fishless, fisherman would

“I ‘spec thar’s an octopus twixt she and me.”

“Aye lad, the evidence was on it real good.”