30 Day Picture Prompt Challenge

One of Them Fishy Stories

Grampa told great stories, Grandma called 'em 'lies!'
But then Grampa was a fisherman, that should be no surprise.
He taught my Papa to bait a hook, how to fish from land or boat,
taught him 'how to tell a whopper' or what Grandma called 'getting a goat.'

The love of fishin' and of tales passed on from Papa to son
and o'er the years a tradition of tall tales was thus begun!
Now I take my son fishin' (and oh, he's like his dad)
and we go home, tell our adventures and it makes great-grandma glad.

Last time we were out, there were no stories to tell,
for we hadn't caught a thing, the fishing didn't go well.
We were sunburned and cranky, head-achy too
but Great-grandma smiled, said, "Then I've one for you"

Your dad and your great-grandpa were down to O'Malley's Bar
and this man arrived and parked his yellow car.
The men always swopped their fishing tales, the ones that got away
and this man started his with, "I caught me me a taxi today."

Course we took it to mean he'd 'caught a cab' to come back from the pier
so we settled in to hear his tale, ordered another round of beer.
"Well, I caught me a yaller jitney, was one hell of a ride to reel 'er in,
bent my rod near twice in half, but to lose her would have been a sin!"

He spread his arms out, said "This long and more."
We all shook our heads, smiled, a great tale was in store.
"I reeled, went slack, and reeled again.
Ain't caught me one this big since two thousand ten."

"It rose to the surface, left quite a wake
Couldn't believe my eyes for pity's sake!
The tide was a coming in and it helped me land my haul
and then I drove it here just to show you all!"

We were frowning now, did he mean that car?
"I see your disbelief, got to say it way fetched-far,"
then he showed us a Polaroid some guy took while he was reeling it home
and sure enough his hook was sunk in front bumper chrome!

We bought him a round for his tale the best,
then we all went outside, his story to test!
The back seat was full of sand and shells, seaweed clung to the door,
the trunk still had salt water splashing, and he said he'd show us more!

In the glove box sat a hermit crab, everything smelled of brine,
"I couldn't believe it still ran," he said. "Can't believe that it is mine!"
We shook our heads, went back inside, we were sure that we'd been had,
Then one of the guys looked up from his book, and said, "The man's a cad!"

"Lookie here," he says and points to the page, "A jitney's a cab, a hack.
Don't know quite how he pulled it off, but I want my half hour back!"
We all laughed then someone noticed: the guy and his cab were no longer here!
"Hell of a lot of work," said the keep, "to get someone to buy you a beer!"






530 word count