FISHERMEN
All hail the young men of Izmir*
Chasing shimmery slivers of the sea
Can you hear the seagulls calling their names
The braves who left behind their dames
Songs of their fathers echo o'er the horizon
And wispy mists float on the waters
Like shadows from the past
Tenfold generations left behind their daughters
Tenuously holding the beam of the mast
Mighty waves lashed against the rafters
The nautical grave swallowed them whole
Surely of their kind, the last
Faithful seeds the cruel sea stole
Hail the halcyonic heroes of this noble caste
They were surely not the last
Frederick Frampton
*Izmir, a port in West Turkey, on the Agean Sea.