Poetry Night w/Tom Mellouk

 

Tom's BIO
Dr. Tom Mallouk is a local Bucks County poet who caught his one and only striped bass on his first trip to Nantucket in 1979. Every trip since has been memorable and over the years he has absorbed some of the spirit of the island. Nantucket has been a blessing for him and those he loves and these poems are one way to return the blessing. You can drop in on him at Snow Goose, one of the Barlett cottages, on Hummock Pond when he is there in August or email him at thxm1@aol.com. His work has appeared in a number of literary journals, including GW Review, The Pisgah Review, The Quercus Review, Red Rock Review, US 1 Worksheets, The Schuykyll Valley Journal and The Sun. He was runner up in both 2010 and 2012 for the Bucks County poet laureate. He has been a psychotherapist for many years and resides in Doylestown with his wife Dr. Eileen Engle.    *

Savor

If I knew thirty years ago the striped bassI caught off the south shore in the wind,rain and sea spray of May, the one I thoughtwas a snagged rock till the rock began to move, the one I hooked on a rented rodwith a set so severeit looked more like a bow and arrowand a surface lure no one who knewwhat they were doingwould ever use that time of year, the one I cranked in as far as I couldwith a rusted reel and dragged to shore when the reel frozethe first time I went surf fishing, the one whose tail touched the groundwhen I held it by its lower jawand lifted it up into my armpit to dwarfour German Shepherd in the photo John took, the one that was the only striped bass I would ever catchbecause soon you were pregnant and I didn’t knowthis new life would take its toll on my fishing, I would have paid more attention to the coldseeping through the eyelets of my bootsand burrowing into my feet, to the numb spidery vineclimbing my calves, to the thirty shades of grayand the just perceptible juncture of ocean and sky, to the hot, giddy, electric prod when the rockbegan to move, I would have licked the salt sprayfrom my drooping mustache and tastedthe bass slime on my puckered fingers.