Neglect

Neglect

A Hudson River dockland that had seen busier time,
empty warehouses and closed factories, business
had moved elsewhere, I can’t remember why we
had docked there, perhaps as a punishment, but
guess we’re waiting for orders; so time was spent
painting the ship’s sides. A deckhand went missing
it was assumed he had gone ashore for a beer.

The river police found him next day, further down
the river under a wooded pier; odd no one heard him
fall, no splash, just silently falling into oblivion.
Eighteen, still a boy, met his mother when I got home,
told her how good he had been, well brought up boy,
it pleased her; she looked so very young herself, so
I took her out for dinner, and that dried her tears