Cable Ship

We fished up the Atlantic cable betweeen Barbados and Tortuga,
held up our lanterns
and patched over the gash on its back,
fifteen degrees north and sixty-one west.
When we put our ears to the gnawed part
we heard the murmuring of the cable.
One of us said: ‘It’s the millionaires in Montreal and St John´s
discussing the price of Cuban sugar
and the lowering of our wages.’

We stood there long, thinking, in a lantern circle,
we patient cable-fishers,
then lowered the mended cable
back to its place in the sea.