Peter returns to his nets – a poem by Herman Sutter

Peter returns to his nets

Before the sea was solid
              it was safe for me

to sink beneath the waves
              and rise upon each crest.

My only destiny:
              nets and hooks and fingers from

fashioning a day 
              out of sweat and sun,

scales and blood, and the salt breath 
              of an evening breeze

thick as my lungs.
                           But I was free

                                       always`

                            to find my way and sink 
              beneath the same 
waves 

I now have walked 
              upon.

Herman Sutter is the author of the chapbooks Stations (Wiseblood Books), and The World Before Grace (Wings Press). His work appears in: Saint Anthony Messenger, The Ekphrastic Review, tejascovido, The Langdon Review, The Porch, Benedict XVI Institute, The English Review, The Merton Journal as well as the anthologies: Texas Poetry Calendar (2021) & By the Light of a Neon Moon (Madville Press, 2019). His narrative poem Constance, received the Innisfree prize for Poetry. His latest manuscript, A Theology of Need was long listed for the Sexton prize in poetry.