Olfactory

electrodes in the salmons’
olfactory bulbs
fire
when the olfactory epithelium
senses spawning ground
water

we all stink he says
picks up a plug
you after plastic fish?
you got the hook
all wrong he
bends the eagleclaw
off centre

it’s the smell he says
smokers get less fish
some people pick up a
spoon you may as well
toss it over
that’s how them salmon
make it all the way to
Japan & back
natural
oil on your hands
smells
more on some guys
than others

white guys
stink more than us

I always rub my bare
hands all over the first
fish

gimme another beer and
I’ll rub my hands
all over your
gear

:: Kevin Roberts, in Going for Coffee (1981)

Off Lasqueti

for Thor Johnson

We clean fish
all day

200 coho
anonymous flesh
thumping into the hold
gulls and dog fish thrashing
astern for gills
like red dahlias
huge pink worms
of guts

blood seeps into
everything

scales
like mica fragments
on our faces
on our hands
as we eat

scrub the gutting box &
deck to break the slip
of the slime & black
dry blood

all this killing
grows
like scales over
my eyes

he says you got to
think of it
as a harvest

I dream of spoons
like scythes
threshing
in the deep

:: Kevin Roberts, in Going for Coffee (1981)

The Fish Come in Dancing

the fish come in dancing
iridescent
dark torpedoes
flurry of white silver
spray
as they jump

pulling lines Len says
Christ they’re strong
big silver muscle
running from the boat

nylon brands
deep
cuts on your fingers

cicatrices

your blood mixes
with theirs

the fish come in dancing
50 coho heavy
in the fishbox
off Sangster
and gas running low

clean them to the scream
of seagulls
blood & guts crawls
into every crack

you throw them up
at Norpac & god
they flop flat &
dull
rainbows on their sides
faded

it gets harder to love
the things
you kill

:: Kevin Roberts, in Going for Coffee (1981)

Deadhead

it is what you
cannot see
the drowned log
swimming dark under
water
like some Grendel
torn from earth and
unforgiving

it is what you
cannot hear waiting
to beat its dumb
point up like a great
fish through
gumwood planks

it is what is unspoken
of boats gone
without a trace
as if some great bird
lifted them dripping
from the sea

it is like
walking in thick grass
in snake country
watching 20 feet ahead
for the thing to rear up
and strike

against wind & water
skill & guts
against this

is what you see
in the faces of fishermen
squatting on the dock

:: Kevin Roberts, in Going for Coffee (1981)