Pacific Pantoum*

The ropes are drenched gray
On the harbor's brittle dock.
The nets are dumped today,
But the men wear no clocks.

On the harbor's brittle dock,
Night heaves its body down.
But the men wear no clocks,
They don't see the light of town.

Night heaves its body down.
Hands wrestle fish in the dark.
They don't see the light of town,
Their eyes knotted to their work.

Hands wrestle fish in the dark.
Sore labor's flesh has stains.
Their eyes knotted to their work,
Sailors on deck complain.

Sore labor's flesh has stains
From time spent on the ocean.
Sailors on deck complain.
The sails heaved by drenched men.

From time spent on the ocean,
They long to step on land,
Where sails heaved by drenched men
Won't deny their words, their brand.

* The pantoum is a form of poetry derived from a Malay verse form. It is composed of a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the next. This pattern continues for any number of stanzas, except for the final stanza, which differs in the repeating pattern.