When the trap surfaced with a 

Puffer fish nested in the wire

Frame, surrounded by sunburnt

Faces, skin stretched tight in awe;

And when Matt dropped the 

Stone crab into the yellow

Bucket, the largest stone crab

I’ve ever seen, after his

Joyful call for the net in the

Knee deep shallows by the

Dock; And when, having crafted

An oceanic landscape in the 

Storage box, complete with

Clams, and rocks, and razor sharp

Oyster shells, we filled our 

Menagerie with pinfish and crabs; 

And when, with the playful 

Shouts of panic, a flurry of limbs

Floundered to stop the 

Blue crab, armored and poised

Like an Arthurian knight, from

Escaping the deck and vanishing

Into the clear brown water of the

North Carolina intercoastal, 

I fell in love with the ocean again.

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