2 Minutes. Go!

When there is no moon, and the clouds shield the stars, it becomes all about feel. Your finger on the line, the wind against the left side of your face. The mist and the water that is kicked up by the churning of the reel. There is a taste of salt and everything has the essence of fish oil. There is no light unless you light a cigarette, and then you become a glowing beacon for five minutes. 

It is cold. 

You think you know what cold feels like, but you have never felt cold like this. It hurts. It aches. It is a burden. It doesn't even feel "cold" - it feels like your skin is burning. You cover yourself and you try to keep moving, but the cold seeps into your bones. 

It slows you.

When you feel a fish on the line, it is a momentary excitement soon replaced by a sense of obligation. This is not going to be three minutes of bass fight and then a quick release. This will be hours of labor followed by autopsy and butchery. 

When your ten hours are up, you will drink cups of hot, black coffee and instantly go to sleep. You will sleep like the dead. Like the carcasses of all the fish you bested. You will wake feeling like rusted metal, but more coffee will oil your gears. The forced labor will loosen your joints.

Only three more months of this, you think. 

Three months. 

It's what you signed up for. 

2 Minutes. Go!

They dress like a cowboy fucked a soldier, and the black masks serve two purposes. One, they are scary. Masks have always been scary. Two, it allows them to move in the dark. Imagine breaking up a family...it would probably be easier with a mask on. 

They say they are precise, but they are casting a wide net. They are bottom trawlers. They sweep up everything and sort it out later. 

They will be found out by their grandchildren. Much in the same way that some poor folks found their grandma's Nazi memorabilia, their grandchildren will find something. The mask. An ICE vest. A hat. Something. 

And they will be filled with shame. 

Democracy was a fever dream, I guess. It was bound to burn out. The statue of liberty will rust away to nothing. No one will travel, even if they do have their "papers."

When true evil takes a human form, all we can do is push back. Hope. Pray that the country will come to its senses. 

When it does, if it does, we're going to have some explaining to do.