Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Crab season

















Home is the deep moss green water where eelgrass grows, where they walk sideways the floor. Their bodies are hard-shelled, spiny-backed, painted a blotchy raw umber with tinges of purple; they have cream-colored undersides. When cooked, they turn bright orange. I've looked into their beady-eyes, and wondered if they could see me and if they have thoughts or any idea of living dangerously.

Using a GPS, fishermen drop round, cage-like crates called pots from their boats, setting them 100 feet deep.  Filled with raw bait, they are left for hours. Crabs sense and follow the scent of chicken parts or anchovies, oblivious to the lines connecting the cast iron traps. Innocent of any crime, they are captured, prized for their delicate meat.

The men return no later than dusk, finding several crab, still pinching their claws, in each crate. Though females survive, are thrown back, so goes the life of many sea creatures. 'Tis the season of catching wild Dungeness in Puget Sound.


Without compassion,
nary any cause to weep,
boiled, broken to eat


For    dversepoets.com   today,  we are visiting the subject of Haibun poetry. First, in prose, a story of a couple of paragraphs. Then, ended with haiku which encapsulates the gist of the  prose. Referring to nature usually, and a more beauteous prose, but this is what came to my mind.

20 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. OK, I feel guilt.
    Because I rather love crab. And I used to get them live to cook them.
    I guess the same could be said of most anything that we eat.
    Cows raised to be slaughtered. Chickens. Fish.

    I think the shame is our detachment from where our food comes from.

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    1. True, but I still eat them because of being raised with that attachment.

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  3. Poor crab.. yummy though!

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  4. I love crabs and I missed eating it as fresh catch from waters ~

    I think they are hardy creatures and your haiku is right on point ~

    Thanks for joining our Haibun Monday ~

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  5. Before the days of HDTV.. colorful crabs
    move through crystal waters of backyard
    river.. ancient creatures of survival liKing..

    Humans boil
    beauty callous..
    hearts.. eYes cold...

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  6. This is beautifully written. Reminds me of the time my sister was trying to plunge a lobster into a pot of boiling water and how it clamped its pincers on either side of the pot and resisted going in. Argh...........I know crab and lobster are delicious but I cant eat them and never forget how that lobster looked before being plunged in the pot. Freaked me out.

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  7. Great haibun, Kathy! I am not a fan of crab a sin eating them but like to see them hurry on the wet sand. Your poem taught me a few things about crab fishing. It is sadly not pretty.

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  8. Actually I do feel sorry for the poor crabs. I know I shouldn't, but I do wonder what they feel.

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  9. poor crabs...glad i don't eat them....nicely put....

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  10. It is a savage fact of life that we must eat. I pray that there is an overall balance.

    Your haibun is thought-provoking.

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  11. Wonderful writing, the prose so evocative, the verse so confronting.

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  12. Very nice combination of prose and poetry. I love in the first paragraph how your description of the crabs switches without missing a beat from how they look alive to the color they are cooked. Peace, Linda

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  13. Excellent haibun. The haiku at the end almost has a formed rhythm to it that makes it flow even more with the ocean and life cycles. Spencer is Kanzensakura.

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  14. I would be like you, and would ponder what they feel and "think" about. I don't eat them either...

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  15. Just a note to check out the other poems by your fellow haibun writers, specially those who joined in the last few days.
    Our next Haibun Monday is October 5. See you then !

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  16. The haiku at the end is the clincher! Yikes.

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  17. Food for thought! They are good food that others think about all the time

    Hank

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  18. This made me think of the line in the Nirvana song, "It's okay to eat fish because they don't have any feelings...."
    Personally I can't eat lobster or crab, but I think we do often look the other way when it comes to thinking about where our food comes from. A thoughtful write.

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  19. Ah, your words will stay with me for while...masterfully written...should we eat the supplement instead now? Ah...

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All comments, constructive and otherwise, are welcome and appreciated here. Thank you to those who show an interest in my quirky style of writing, photography, painting, and presenting a feeling or thought and for stopping by A Dwelling by the Sea..