a friend for life

not what you think



as the ship was docked or hidden instead in a small bay
if mother had she known refused to see me go on board
. Along it railing a group of scowling men passing the time by spitting into the water.
In the galley, I met the cook who knew the rudimentary of cooking he was cleaning dirt from under his fingernails using a fish knife - a giant of a man few dared to cross him, a friend for life.
With a crew of murderous ruffians and a million cockroaches
I had to live, yet we wore bandana of grey, and they had as I the pallid skin of poverty no soap can wash away,
in a way I felt a kinship with them and I was accepted.
When the ship birthed in Genoa, I noticed some of
the lads smelling of perfume, the cook told me they were
going to meet older men, who gave them dinner,
a little money and shiny objects, it took me a bit before
I too understood. Not to forget the evil twins who went to
Public loo to beat up gays, the cook would not let them come
Near the galley, they boasted of having put a gay man 's head
Down a toilet full of shit and they didn't let go before the man
Stopped resisting. But homosexuality raised its ugly head
a bum was patted someone told the captain and the homo
was arrested and thrown into an empty cabin, in the morning
he was not there, and the captain who was judge and jury said he drowned.