Peter Markus - Bob, or Man on Boat

Fish on.

Live fish.

Live to fish.

Bob lives.

In a boat.

On a river.

A man.

A fish.

Bob.

There’s only one fisherman who fishes this river who is known by the name of Bob.

That Bob is Bob.

Our Bob.

My Bob.

The Bob who is my father.

My name is Bob too.

You know this.

I’ve told you this.

But I am better known, to those who know this river, to those who fish this river, by the name Bobber.

A bobber is what some fisherpeople use so they can see when a fish is biting on the other end of your line.

The end of the line where the hook is.

The end of the line where the bait is.

The end of the line that, when you look down into the water, this is the end that you can’t see.

When you look down into the river, you can’t see bottom.

Only the fish in the river know what the river’s bottom looks like.

Bob likes it like that.

Bob likes to imagine what bottom looks like.

Bob likes to close his eyes.

When Bob closes his eyes, when Bob imagines the river’s bottom, what Bob sees is the belly of a fish.

A fish that is bigger than the river is.

A fish that is bigger than the sky is.

A fish that is waiting, one of these days, to rise up to the river’s top.

This is the fish.

This is the fish that Bob is fishing for.

This fish.

It lives on the river’s bottom.

This fish.

It is the river bottom.

Bob fishes with his hands.

With his hands, Bob feels for his fish.

Bob feels for the river.

In Bob’s head, Bob reaches down and drags his hand down along the bottom of the river.

When Bob fishes, Bob does not look up.

When Bob fishes, Bob fishes looking down into the darkness of the river.

Bob, even when Bob’s eyes are closed, or when he is looking down into the river’s dark, Bob can still see the stars.

A bobber Bob does not fish with.

It’s true that a bobber can help you see that a fish is on the other end of the line biting.

That a bobber bobbing up and down lets you know that there is a fish down by your hook nibbling at your bait.

Bob doesn’t need the help of a bobber.

Bob doesn’t want any help.

It’s also true — and Bob is not alone in believing this — that a bobber can get in the way.

Some fishing men, like Bob, they believe that the fish can see the bobber.

When you fish, you want to be like the river’s bottom.

Like a fish down at the river’s bottom.

To be a fish in the river.

That’s what Bob wants.

To be a fish and not to be seen.

See Bob fish.

Bob’s right hand moving up and down, up and down.

This is Bob’s hand moving Bob’s bait.

Bob’s bait moves up and down along the river’s bottom.

The river’s bottom is where Bob believes that Bob’s fish is living.

If Bob believes that Bob’s fish is down there along the river’s bottom, then Bob’s fish is down there, down along the river’s bottom.

In the river Bob believes.

The other fish in the river keep getting in Bob’s way.

The other fish keep getting in between Bob and this fish that Bob is fishing for.

Bob does not want to fish up from the river these other river fish.

Bob is not fishing the river to fish for these other kinds of fish.

These other fish, when Bob fishes them up from out of the river, Bob keeps them, these fish, Bob does not throw these fish back, because he knows that he can sell them.

If Bob threw these other fish back into the river, then these other fish would still be in the way, they’d still get in between Bob and that fish that Bob is fishing for.

To this fish, Bob is faithful.

If this fish were Bob’s wife, Bob would be called a good husband.

Bob would be a good catch.

And if this fish were Bob’s son, Bob would be considered a good father.

As it is, Bob is, to his fish, a good fisherman.

A good fish man.

A good fishing man.

Know this:

When you catch a big fish, what you say when you fish this big fish into the boat is, you say:

This fish is a good fish.

A keeper is what you call this fish.

But smaller fish are good fish too.

These smaller fish, these fish we call good eaters.

These not-so-big fish fry up in a pan real good.

Out on the river, it is always good.

Even when the fishing’s not so good, out on the river, the river is always good.

Good is a good word to use when you’re out on the river.

When you’re talking about a fish.

Know this too.

There is no such fish as a bad fish.

All fish are always good.

But a boat.

A boat is not a fish.

There are good boats and there are bad boats.

Bob’s boat is a good boat because it is a boat that floats.

It is a boat that holds Bob up.

But there are some boats that leak.

There are some boats that take on water.

There are some boats that, down to the river bottom, these boats sometimes sink.

Like stones that disappear down and down into the river’s dark.

There are some riverfolks who know Bob who say about Bob that what Bob is looking for is a stone that floats.

A fish that doesn’t exist.

Or maybe what Bob is looking for is this:

A fish that walks on water.

What I say to this, what I say about Bob, is this:

Bob is Bob, I say.

I also say this: that in Bob’s eyes, in Bob’s heart, there is a fish that is more than just a fish.

There is no such fish that is just a fish.

Every fish is a beautiful fish.

Every thing that is beautiful in this world is a fish.

The moon is a fish.

The river is a fish.

The stars in the sky.

The stones in the river.

The mud on the river’s bank.

Fish.

Fish.

Fish.

Starfish.

Stonefish.

Mudfish.

Bobfish.

This is the fish in the river — this is the fish in the world — that I am fishing for.