ELLEN THE TALL ONE

They cast a line

Six feet ahead

Into silent Kotor Bay

.

Hook and sinker

Luring not even a pilchard

       Reel it in

            Re-bait

                 Replay

 .

Polluted the water does not appear

I can see the pebbles, the seaweed

Big fish clearly ain’t lurking here

.

I can forgive the kids-

They’re naïve and tangled up

In the thrill of it

 .

Zigzagging across the pier

The fortuity to net a fish against a backdrop of

Deserted

             Brutalist

                         Architecture

.

But the oldies are aware

Of post-war struggle-

Collapse

            Ruin

                Despair

 .

They keep at it though

Casting off line after line into

Empty

   Aquamarine

Brine

.

What do they hope to snag?

Some luck?

Some progression?

                       .

Or perhaps a scruple to amend

The Yugoslavian echo-

              Crony capitalism

    Corruption

  Regression

Crony capitalism

     Corruption

   Regression

.

Slavko Lekić with grandsons Stracnia and Lazar, fishing in front of the deserted Hotel Fjord

Kotor sunset

Waiting for something to take the bait

Fisherman’s perch