Old Quawk’s Day

Today, March 16, 2026, has turned stormy, just as it might have been about 200 years agoe when an island character named “Old Quawk” wanted to go fishing and did so despite inclement weather. As Philip Howard notes in his Island Journal: “(Quawk) was a reclusive figure, preferring to live in a small hut made of driftwood and bullrushes about 5-6 miles from the village. No one remembers his given name, but folks called him “Old Quawk” because, they said, he ‘quawked’ like an old night heron.” This poem recounts Old Quawk’s story.

By Robb Foster

March, the ides, of Winter’s end
A sorrowed tale will oft portend
That Caesar is just one to fall
The season, late, had one more squall
We stood in awe of dark’ning skies
The winter, still, had one reprise
The song she sang that day Cimmerian
For we, the children, here Silurian
We bade the day considered lost
For no man, wise, would pay the cost
To fish amongst a roiling sound
To cast that day, our ending, drowned
But on that day one stood too proud
Cursing God and Mother loud
He left this isle and safety’s sight
To save his nets despite this plight
Unto his own he stayed up north
So rarely would he venture forth
He left us here to pine upon
Why here, these shores, he wandered on?
Bolder he than all of us
Above the gale we heard him cuss
Raucous wails, the tempest spoke
Though, not above this fiery bloke!
Some say a pirate, some shipwrecked
This Moorish hermit, we suspect
These tales as told will have no end
The squawking recluse failed to bend
For on that fateful mid-March Day
We watched the cullion sail away
No trace of him was ever found
No blighted skiff adrift, the sound
Beware the Ides of March, my friend
And if you doubt, I’ll swear again
Pay heed, old Quawk, we never found
This day, the wise, stay island bound.

Robb Foster, who aspires to one day call Ocracoke home, lives in the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia, where he also finds inspiration for his poetry. He is a talented musician and songwriter and a frequent guest on WOVV, Ocracoke’s community radio.