la mar

The sea is an anomaly.

In Spanish, every noun, with the exception of one, is assigned a gender. The Sea is the exception. The sea has two genders. La mar. El mar.

It is known as la mar to the men who spend their days, lines cast, silently, patiently, waiting, their callused fingers and grey eyes, sensitized to the slightest tug, the smallest disturbance, their minds stretched out across the surface of the sea; searching themselves in the restless, the fitful, their heavy boots make sucking sounds as they shift their weight, as they move, a few paces here, a few paces there, looking for the sweet spot, feeling for something they can’t see in that place where the sea ends and everything else begins: the shore, where La mar reveals its desire to know the land. La mar, full of trepidation, arriving right up until the moment it is receding.