cook onboard

the cook onboard

I had gone to sea as a gally boy it was the way
I could save money for a further education
and it so happened the ship was stuck on ice
In the Black Sea waiting for a Russian tugboat
to set us free.
the crew were an odd sort, they had survived
the war, but spent so long time on ships they
had no idea how to get home.
the officers were elderly men picked up from
the last chance saloon and since the ship was
dry they didn't chance it by going ashore
the cook was Swedish and the gayest man
I had ever seen, a walking outrageous caricature
of a homo, normally, back then, not accepted
on merchant ships, but he was in his manner
and skills as a cook accepted.
I don't know if gay people have a secret sign
because in ports he had many friends sometimes
he took me along for dinner at a restaurant
a novelty for me, but he sent me back to our
ship when it got late
the cook shrieked when we hit the ice, tearing
his hair on the same day when Stalin died