reborn

 I have answered the most questions

and what I know is only the truth and love prevail.

When I set sail across the ocean of time

will you remember me with love in your heart?

Grieving is waste of time.

I like you to smile and laugh again.

I don’t know if the voyage will be long or short

since time is endless, I need your love

to sustain me through choppy water.

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If you…

  If you see an old man with an unsure gait

 Coming your way, do not pretend he is a bit of fluff.

If he looks at you it is because you are lovely

He admires the beautiful you looking like his granddaughter.

If he nods and smiles do not be offended

In his eyes, his wife is beautiful too.

If he says good morning, do not act as you do not hear

Say good morning ...

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The colourblind scientist

He was from Pakistan, always wore a blue suit

we were walking away from a ship that sank.

So, I said, what are you doing for a living?

I´m a mathematician, he said currently I`m trying to make

brown into green by using a math formula, so far

I have got grey colours but lack funds to continue.

We came to a park and sat down, I pointed to the grass

...

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The hummock

There is a hill behind the houses round and soft,

I call it a mother hill it welcomes you and murmur

How do you do?” and let you sit on a boulder

to enjoy the peace.

If you sit too long enjoying your sentimentality,

it wakes, the boulder gets cold and hard to sit on.

The wind suddenly blows, has a fragrance of Siberia and Vodka.

So, you walk around to kee...

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A compliment

At the pharmacy, I met Hans, ten years ago when I stayed in Faro

he rented my house and being an industrious German

he and his boyfriend baked bread and sold the product mainly

to his compatriots and locals.

He used the oven at the local bakery after their bread and the ovens were hot.

this suddenly ended I knew why but preferred not to say anything.

He was...

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 Hygiene

 The ship was old once it had been a big ship

now, it was small compared with the newer fleet.

The shower system only had saltwater which was nice

to cool off after a hot day in the Red sea.

But we had to rinse the body with fresh water

or we would scratch all night.

For months we didn´t have a proper shower until the ship

went to Bremerhaven for repairs.

...

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School outing

The class drove upland skiing, I hated snow, always have

cold and clammy.

I put the ski on and fell over, to the delight

of other boys, snotty little bastard.

The fastening on my skies didn´t fir gave me

ulcer on my left heel.

I took the bloody skis off and hid them behind a hut.

A teacher told me to put them on, I refused and had to sit

 in the cold...

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A day in Loulé

The café had a big window facing the street.

It was almost empty except for three scientists talking about the heavens.

I noticed a dog outside running up and down apparently lost

and tired of listening to the wise men, I walked outside and fed the dog

I also gave it water in the park so it could sniff the trees telling other dogs

“I was here with a human.”

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Alexander Graham Bell

It was fine, quiet winter´s day I listened to distant noise,

dogs bark -you can´t avoid this in the Algarve-

smoke from chimneys straight up before disbursing and disappearing.

A few clouds drift about looking like wedding dresses of the unmarried,

The sun is a golden coin captain hook would kill to obtain.

I smell grilled sardine, and a cat on a fence...

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 Horizons

I sit on the verandah look at the sea no ships in today

open view until the horizon after that, on the other side

there are new limits

I have seen many horizons, some of them are blue or green

but have in common stopping me from seeing what is beyond

What if I met a horizon that had no new horizons?

A blank nothingness that has no dreams.

I look behind me a...

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 Armaments

Now that the debacle of Afghanistan is behind us

 we have to find something else to keep the war machine going

“Aucan,” an alliance of Anglophone countries are formed

A defence of the Chinese who dares to build

their navy.

Canada was not included too many French speakers live there

and they talk about peace with the enemy which everyone

Is too polit...

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In afternoon glow

I ought to take an interest in death

but I don´t find it a stimulating subject

it has to do with acceptance.

This is comforting since I’m not religious

but has a strong spiritual streak.

I believe in the mystic.

What we fail to understand in normal life can be understood by

a second sight.

I can see the near future

based on experience.

I bel...

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Alright then

It was peace in the valley, a deep harmony of those

who had fled the air of a town´s inequity?

Then there was an avalanche of thoughts which caused confusion

when it settled, a gramophone voice from 1930 sweetly sang

“I love you, yes I do, my darling.”

Back then, singers appeared in suits or long skirts.

Now it is about tight trousers and tits, never mind th...

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Minimum wage

The olive trees in the landscape

near the village,

Have working-class trunks

and no illusion

Of becoming middle-class trees.

They refuse to grow

in a plant- nursery and be tampered with

by botanists.

They do not envy tall palm trees.

Good luck to those who see the world

through an elevated height.

Good soil and water the plebian olive tree wa...

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My Serengeti

I have neglected to visit my “Africa”, the flatland between
two hills that appear like a young mother`s breasts.
I know the trees and bushes, used to drive there to say hello.
Time changes I have no motorbike.
On the road driving to the shop, I can see the valley, yellow digger
And blue tractors near the wadi where I once saw a brown crocodile 
waiting for rain.
Once I saw a...

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The sea ghosts

The first time I went to sea as a mess-boy, it was on an old ship.
It took two days to find my seaman's legs and take a look at my surrounding.
The crew didn´t look real like they were shadows caught up in a war
that was not of their choosing. 
When ships were torpedoed and the sea was afire.
Drowning seamen slowly sinking in a circle like a macabre dance of death. 
There w...

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Epiphany

1950, there had been a war, but things were going back to normal.

My mother had a new boyfriend who also had a small cabin on an island

and a rowing boat.

On a nice Sunday, we rowed out, mother had made sandwiches mostly filled with jam,

a thermos of coffee and a bottle of soft drink.

Her boyfriend gave me a line with a hook and a sinker and told me

to go to t...

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We must haste

 They are so happy, the parents, grandmother’s uncle and aunts showing on Facebook the addition

to the family.

Do they not for a minute think what the child´s future will be?

The world is on the brink of total collapse, but no one takes this calamity that is coming our way, will

kill them and the children.

The polar ice is melting so much sea it is drowning s...

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Surgery

After my morning shower, I noticed blood from my middle toe

(the one beside the big toe) I bent down the nail was loosened

I pulled it off and I thought of Socrates.

In a few days, I need a new battery in my pacemaker, a small surgery

when doctors say small, be aware.

I friend of mine, the late actor Clive Dunn, went into hospital for a small

surgery that became ...

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Scepticism

When I grew up

I stopped believing in God

Toys belonged to the young

And Santa fanatics.

However,

I leave a small light

On the bedside table

The fear of the dark

Never left me.

However,

I knew Christianity had taken hold of me

The dark hue of the sinner

Is always present.

However,

I believe in the day

Truth must not be hide

I...

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Trapped

My life is in three parts

30, years as a seaman until it became unbearable.

30 good years in the deep hinterland

a place of contemplations and trying to write,

walking with my dog in the woods, there was so much to see.

I feel imprisoned.

My house is sold, I have nowhere to go.

Living in a building of snobs who rather wait for an elevator

when the transport...

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Writing and movies

In my mind exist, people, I have not met

they are a friendly lot not giving to dispense advice

points to me to write that floats into my mind

even if it is not deeply intellectual.

Trash is the weed of writing, without it how else

can a movie be made?

Look what happened to Hemingway´s book of a poor fisher

who caught a big fish only to have it eate...

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A lesson learnt

The ship I saw in the bay and thought a princess of the seas

came back this afternoon when the sky was murky, she was sad

the cook was fired, and the crew was sorrowful.

Nothing wrong with the new cook, but as good as the old one

The cook had read too much Hemingway and wanted to be like him.

He took to calling the ship “el Pilar” and drinking whisky in th...

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Bedtime

 The beginning of the night was hot

I went to bed naked (daredevil.)

On the other side of the bedroom, I saw a naked man who had a big stomach, large balls and a small penis.

Since he wasn’t me, I did not bid him good night

 I switched off the light.

During the night it got cold a foretaste of winter

hastily put my pyjamas on.

I had noticed the man in the ot...

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 Temptation

The girl in the bar that had floors made of stranded schooners

came and sat by us

Many sailors had drowned in her eyes.

On the way to the Saragossa Sea, their blood

ran down cracks on the floor,

Dripped into the sea below the colour of crimson.

Looked into her eyes an evil goddess with green eyes

I followed her to a room in the back

She laughed when she ...

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The bookshelf

When clearing out my old home in Algarve

I had no place for my many books, they ended up in a garage

until I get to buy a bigger bookshelf by moving a sofa that has no place in my study.

Since my old bookshelf was double stacked and come across books, I had forgotten

many of the books were mine, but there was Steinbeck, Hemingway and many others

and I miss ...

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A dirge

He was not for me

He was not for you.

Stillness.

We miss his absence.

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Bosporus

Bosporus 1956, the old tanker where I was a galley boy

had anchored waited for orders to proceed into the black sea.

A rowing boat came alongside they were selling fez

the latest fad among us seamen.

They also sold sweet liqueurs which I drank, got drunk and sick

for the first time in my life; I was 15teen.

In the old days, you had to grow up fast and learn...

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The lucky ship

I sat on the terrace at the enchanting hour when the sun has gone westward

but it is not dark yet and saw a long sleek cargo ship in the bay.

A well-kept ship manned by professional seafarers who have s contract

and get to go home on vacation every three months.

The cook is often referred to as a catering officer, sits in his spacious cabin

reading a book by ...

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