Blessing of the Fleet

Our Lady of Good Voyage

By: Charles Giuliano - Sep 06, 2016

Blessing of the Fleet

Launching fishing season
Blessing of the Fleet
Annual festival
Skippers gathered
Gloucester Harbor
Bishop splashing
Holy Water
Farming the sea
Since Colonial times
First settlers
Stage Fort Park
Drying cod
Feeding Europe
Italians and Portuguese
Built their church
Our Lady of Good Voyage
On what locals call
Port-a-gee Hill
Dense settlement
Toilers of the sea
Brought their food
Virgilio’s Bakery
Mike’s Pastry
Maria’s meat balls
Flavors of heritage
Enriching this polis
Ethnic inner city
Fish factories
Once so active
Now going condo
Poor hanging in
Moving on
Flipping homes
Big bucks for
Newcomers
Hour from Boston
Triple during drive time
Or commuter train
Up at dawn
Economic balance
Off kilter
Fishermen endangered
Like other species
Mussels now gone
Portuguese staple
Farmed off
Prince Edward Island
Global warming
Ravaging oceans
Devastating families
Living off them
Trawlers long gone
Lobster boats
All that’s left
Sister Morphine
Plagues the port