Jan Oskar Hansen Poet Blank verse

Not As Bad As You Think

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  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.

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