Kendall Merriam: Remembering the men chopping the ice off the Boston College class trawlers
Kendall Merriam, portrait by Carlo
Kendall Merriam, portrait by Carlo
Just steps away from this house
giant men swung mauls
to rid lines and deck houses
of heavy salt ice
accumulated on The Banks
the dangerous weight
could turn boat over
men, catch, boat all lost
rugged men working to save their lives
their livelihood
I know a man capable
of lifting a household freezer, alone
who refused to do it
unwilling to wear out his body
Kendall Merriam was born and raised in Rockland. He has a history degree from Gordon College and pursued graduate studies in military and maritime history at the University of Maine at Orono and Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Conn. He received grants to study historical research at Colonial Williamsburg and the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
Merriam has been widely published, including in Katyn W Literaturze (Katyn in Literature), a Polish anthology of literary works about the WWII Katyn Forest Massacre by 120 international authors, including Czeslaw Milosz. Most of Merriam’s work has a definite muse – family, friends, and strangers – with life’s larger themes of work, love, loss and death.
on a Rockland vessel
a number going out
on the Boston College Class
Surf, Crest and many others
with the names of Neptune’s elements
who came to the shipyard
refitting, repainting, rest
men did the same
not for long
unemployment compensation
if any
demands from the captains, the hulls, nets
the grinding of the salt ice
Kendall Merriam, Home, 5/21/2020 5:42 PM
Listening to house sounds after talking to my mariner brother who has had to chop ice on an oil barge.
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