initiation

initiation

The Initiation

It is not easy to be young at 16 I
was a galley boy

on a tankship that even then 60
years ago was ancient

crewed by old mariners who spent
their free time

playing cards and talking about
whores and now the ship

had docked in Le Havre.

It was dark when I went ashore sat
in a bar and drank

Pernod I think. I didn`t go in
there had promised my mother

to stay away from alcohol and
women.

Light rain and the street light was
sparse like there was still

a war on, a small girl standing in
the rain looking like

a sparrow with a broken wing.

We went to a mall hotel, but I
didn`t have enough money

I got to keep my virginity for
another day.

Walking back to the ship it was
still raining and the old men

sat drinking one of them saw me and
invited me in I accepted

by now I was so lonely and needed
someone to talk to,

it was not like I could ring my
mother from a cell phone and

anyway, we didn`t have a phone back
home.

The ancient mariners carried me on
board.