Old Man Pan

by Paul Pines

We anchor close to Peter Pulitzer
on his reconditioned
Louisiana shrimp trawler
The Sea Hunter

a man who marries girls
that leave him
a weathered man
at seventy-eight
who hunts
and skins wild goats
on Crooked Island

a goat of a man
on a floating piece of tin
the Croesus
of goats

waves sinewy arms
at us
from the stern
of the tender
he steers

between our boats

to ask Captain Brad
which lures
are best
for marlin

his leathery hands
reach up
to shake ours

(so far away
from West Palm Beach)
cool eyes and white teeth
one can’t help but think
bread and circuses

a floating dissonance
becalmed grief
a mummified
Phoenician
with pearls
for eyes