Scott T. Starbuck
I'm Trolling at 5 a.m.
along a tide rip
with diving gulls,
silver herring flashes,
and there is a moment
as the first line is dropped
when the dream of salmon
the night before
and the muscle of salmon
in the aqua light
merge.
18 in Depoe Bay
My tired arms crusted with salmon blood,
I walked home from the docks
hoping to still see a “For Sale” sign
on a rusted out ‘65 metallic green Mustang
so I could gawk religiously
like it was just off the lot
at a time when I had enough hope
to believe I could save something
from the relentless teaching
of the saltwater wind.
Bio:
Scott T. Starbuck was a writer-in-residence at The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in Oregon in January 2004. A former commercial salmon troller and charter-boat captain of The Starfisher in Depoe Bay, his poems have appeared in journals in Australia, Canada, England, India, Ireland, Poland, and widely in the United States. He currently surfs in La Jolla and teaches as an Associate Professor of English at San Diego Mesa College.
