Sailing to China

We share a black hole
in the middle of time
on the Lower East Side
the size of a dime,
We both have jobs
that allowed us to eat
friends will ask
where did we meet?

We’d tell them the story
mostly it’s truth
Portland bus station
a Quick-photo booth,
Both needed pictures
for merchant sea passes
setting sail for China
escaping the masses,

Some days later
on the placid Pacific
we became lovers
and thought it terrific,
Worked long shifts, then
the cabin I shared
with three salty sailors
as if they cared,

We’d climb in my bunk
with the privacy curtain
strip off our clothes
each of us certain,
That God would strike us
dead on the spot
as we both indulged
in the lust that we sought,

Sixty days later
were back on the shore
with a bus ticket and
a little bit more,
Made it to New York
found a place to reside
made love in the kitchen
with nothing to hide …