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FOUR GENERATIONS
By James Williams
Four Generations have
these waters held
a living for my family.
My great grandfather
relied on only wind and sail.
My grandfather was aided by
an engine that ran on gas.
My father did the same
with a boat of fiberglass.
Today I too am aided
by these inventions.
But now I suffer
because not of these inventions
but from human intervention.
Now I must buy a license
for everything I do
from shrimp to crabs
to crawdads.
Without them fishing is taboo.
The catch is less
and with regulations it is fewer.
Some say it is our own undoing.
This is the view of some
who have no brain and
nothing better to do.
Not only laws but boats to
hasten our extinction
from pleasure boaters
to jet ski owners we
are constantly harassed.
We are an endangered species
and though we are proud
and few where is a band
to plead with the man
commercial fishermen are people too!
Reprinted from a prior issue of Tradewinds
