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Zywa Mar 2019
I am a farmer at sea
60 sheep, 100 pigs,
geese and ducks on departure

These are frugal rations
with the stew, army bread and beans
No need to slaughter

The beasts just die
so there is always meat
for the cook and the officers

high above my smelly stable
where I haul in the buckets from the sea
and scrub the **** through the scuppers

In the bunks, it is worse
There is the world of the below deck
of sweat, exhaust gases, and the rasping sick

where you sink asleep in a pit
full of poo and ***, gasp for air
and throw up brown tar
Merchant shipping in the 18th century

Collection “On living on”

— The End —