Willie the black stoker from Djibouti
upon ending his night shift
he came laughing around to my cabin to find me
and he talked long hours about strange things

He told me the way they're smoking hasheesh in Algiers
and in Aden how they're sucking in the white powder while dancing
and afterwards how they yell and how they soliloquy
when the dizziness strangely surrounds them with dreams

He told me further that he too one night he had sucked
he was riding on the sea's back galloping
and mermaids with wings were running after him
When we go to Aden, he was telling me, you'll try it too

I gave him sweets and razor blades
and told him that hasheesh kills a man
and then, while guffawing shakily, he used to
raise me up high off the ground with one hand

Inside his huge body he had an innocent heart
one evening inside Regina bar in Marseille
in order to protect me from a Spaniard
he took a blow on the head with an empty bottle

One day we left him behind parched from fever
afar in the Far East burning and melting
God of the blackamoors, forgive good Will
and give him wherever he is some white powder

06/26/2013

Posted on 06/27/2013
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