Daughter Of The Fisherman

Daughter Of The Fisherman
© Surazeus
2018 08 20

She finds her father down by the dark lake,
slumped against the dead tree of honey bees,
still clutching his fishing pole with both hands.
Touching his cold pale cheek, wet from wild rain,
she looks into his eyes and calls his name.
Muttering about the glowing cloud of fear,
he pushes open droopy eyes and slurs
words that splatter raindrops on slippery mud,
then reaches out his hand to grasp her arm
but drops it limply as he slides away.
Gasping as he flops in mud, she grabs hold
his arm to stop him sliding in the stream,
but he rolls over toward swift-gushing stream,
so she grabs tighter and digs heels in mud
to pull him back, but his heavier weight
drags him down the slippery slope into gush
of rain-flooded stream, which snags him with force
and swallows him down into roaring flow.
Screaming in horror as his heavy body
slips out of her tight-grasping hands, she slips
on slick mud and almost falls in the stream,
but she whips her arm back and grabs the tree,
then pulls herself back onto the bank,
where she howls in anguish at sudden loss.
Heaving with sobs at the terrible thought
that she may never see his face again,
she pulls herself up and peers through thick rain,
straining to see his face in swirling gray.
Blinking eyes through pouring rain, she sees form
of his body floating in wild turmoil
of gushing waves, so she leaps over logs
and dodges bushes as she runs for miles,
chasing his body as it floats downstream,
and gasps for breath as she leans against trees,
then runs again when spark of energy
flashes hot enough so she can run more.
Stumbling into meadow where sun gleams bright,
she runs right into crowd of thirty people
all sitting on soft grass with plates of food
who gasp startled to see disheveled girl
soaked with mud and plasted with sticks and leaves.
Stopping astonished at the sight of people
dressed in strange elegant clothes of all colors,
she shivers mute in her brown tattered gown
then sobs in wild frustration of despair.
Young bearded man wearing jewels on his head,
grasps her shoulders and wipes her smeared face clean,
then gives her glass of wine which she gulps down,
and asks her to say what makes her upset,
so she explains how her father slipped down
into the swift-gushing stream and was lost.
Grasping her hand, he takes her to the shore
where they search the river to see his face,
then dozens of men run at his command
to help find the man swallowed by the stream.
Gazing into blue sparkle of his eyes,
she breathes deep to calm beating of her heart
as she listens to soft tone of his voice
that soothes her so she feels solid again,
and harsh terrible panic flows away.
Assuring her they will find her pa soon,
he caresses her cheek with gentle hands,
and for long moment of warm gleaming light
he gazes in her eyes with wordless joy,
and she gazes back, wondering at strange glow
of aching hope flushing her with desire.
Just as she feels she will faint in his arms,
someone shouts, so they run along the shore
to find five courtiers in elegant dress
sloshing in the river to drag him out,
then lay his body limp on muddy grass.
Falling to her knees and clutching his face,
she calls out his name, but cries out with sorrow
when she realizes his spirit is gone,
and he will never smile at her again,
so she doubles over from aching anguish,
sobbing at the pain of her broken heart.
The bearded man with jewels on his head,
pulls her head to press against his warm breast,
then he hugs her tightly with loving arms
while caressing her hair with tender hands,
comforting her as she weeps in despair.