Black Perch

Sitting down with my line in the water Sun in my face in Snug Harbour With you and your brother, and his wife and their son and their daughter Out here in Snug Harbour Pulling in the stingrays, pulling in the sand sharks Pulling in croakers and black perch Out here I feel calm, and the view is grand Out here with my feet in the sand Today I’m out fishing while you’re at work Tonight for dinner I’m gonna cook us some black perch And when I eat fresh fish pulled from the sea I go to bed at night at peace with you beside me, and my day is complete Sitting in the sand, lying in the water Talking to my father, talking to my sister On my phone, and we reminisce My right ear ringing with tinnitus From the many years of recording and travel I go to bed and while I unravel, I think Yeah, sure, for now there’s no work But having no work has its perks I get to talk to my family everyday And every night I get to see your lovely face And in the morning, I awake to the sound of birds And I think of daily affirmations and positive words Ray Leonard was asked, “what is a champion?” He said, “believing in yourself when nobody else does” Sitting on the beach, lying in the water For the first time ever I’m reading Raymond Carver My ex-girlfriend liked him so much That I was jealous and I never opened or touched One of his books, I never read a story I was young and threatened, stubborn and petty Then she died and now that time has passed I finally lightened up and I buried the axe Reading What We Talk About When We Talk About Love His stories would have stumped me when I was young His books would have left me scratching my head With age and life experience, they make so much sense And now I know a little more about her than what I thought I did She loved reading about the sorrows of life and the struggles of relationships And he liked writing about fishing, that’s for sure I wish I could ask you which Carver was your favourite book And while I’m sitting around waiting, waiting for work I’m happy to be fishing on the surf, for croakers and perch Oh one day when I’m back to traveling the earth From Stockholm to London, from Melbourne to Perth I’ll be missing our dinners of black perch I’ll never forget what these nights are worth Waking up next to you, to the sound of birds Black perch Black perch Black perch Black perch Black perch