Honorable Mention – 2025 Beverly Hopkins Contest for High School Students

Fishermen at Sea

by BERA OZKAYA
Gateway Science Academy

The boat tips under the hand of the storm,
Brushed waves clawing at its ribs so fragile
A flicker of a moon no bigger than a pen
Half-drowned in the inky restless sky,
Casts ghost-light on the faces of the fishermen

Paint swirls along the horizon,
A smear of shadow, a breath of rainbow
Fading into the throat of the storm
The guitar of the sea strums wild chords,
It's string snapping into white-capped fury.

Hands grip onto the frame of the boat
Knuckles taut like bricks holding back collapse
And every splash rises a momentary pattern of chaos
Blocks of light and dark
Spill from latent to wave,
Cutting a picture alive and drowning.
Beyond the chaos
There grows in their minds a single plant of hope
The goal, the shore
Still far to reach and touch