Direct quotes ABC site, I read the news Damocles oh boy, May 29, 2018
four men pose
swordfish 436.2 kilos
caught off Mallacoota
it kept doing jumps
and it was like someone
was dropping missiles
around the boat
we heard all these explosions
with the fish
coming up out of the water
trying to obviously
free itself
hanging by the tail
a final dive pinned to air
head to earth
in dense truncation
the glass jaw finds a surface
eye of an elephant
poached egg
the ebony yolk
scrambling breathless
the sport fishing association
animal hooked and fought
so the animal has a chance
of escaping
and a lot of them do
so I guess it’s more
like a boxing match
and you go so many rounds
and at the end
there is a victor
the year I was born 1953
off Chile 536.1 kilos
world record stands
two kilometres deep
the gene pools flash
inaudible stutter
lights the coppery speckles
of skin
free crawl
in ancient waywardness
layers between
the higher and lower feeders
James Walton is an Australian poet published in newspapers, and many journals, and anthologies. Short listed twice for the ACU National Literature Prize, a double prize winner in the MPU International Poetry Prize, Specially Commended in The Welsh Poetry Competition – his collection ‘The Leviathan’s Apprentice’ was published in 2015.
well i was barracking for the fish
Created quite a stir locally, good healthy debate, numbers came down for the fish, too late. Don’t know what it takes for humans to wake up.
you hooked me….thanks
To add insult to injury they now claim the Australian species is a special sub species, and is therefore bigger, and more numerous…….at that weight, they are older than, the maturity of humans.