TheBanyanTree: The Ocean Beach Pier

[Tom Smith]

I see this place as a kind of casino.  Gamblers above and in
the water.  Bait, some live, the chips, the common currency. 
Stakes are higher in the water -lives.  There, the Force is
hunger.  Above, attached to traps and hooks, patient hobbyists
play a cruel sport.  Lazy gulls wait on the sidelines for scraps.
One has a hook in its beak.

Photo of pier at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9482738@N07/10577801195/