Memoirs In Verse

This free verse poem is my fourth and final poem in the ‘Kildare’ series. The poem comes with a trigger warning for those who may be offended by some of the harsh realities of life. Listen to: A Run Ashore The smell of stale sweat and tropical damp pervaded the stairs and the grubby room, where we sat with our backs to the wall, dripping in a humid thirty degrees, with knees pressed hard against the bed, which entirely filled the dim-lit room. Mama-san appeared with two naked women, and opened us a bottle of Tiger beer each. They introduced themselves politely; I didn’t catch their bar-names or care, for they resembled Laurel and Hardy, Ollie, tall and plump; Stan, thin as a robber’s dog. The simple thought of a naked woman is often enough to prick the arousal of a roaming adolescent seaman. Yet Ollie and Stan inspired nothing in me, and I found my interest drained as complete as the beer in my bottle. I admit they presented a curious sight, for when Ollie produced a cucumber, mounte