The Old And Sickly Seaman... Poem by RIC BASTASA

in my birthday party an old retired seaman came with his beautiful daughter who is taking care of him since his wife works as a caregiver in Chicago.

he is diabetic, with a high blood pressure and thinks that death shall take him soon. he does not drink Fundador but he obliged, saying life is too short for another happy deprivation.

daughter looks at him with worries insisting that they have to go home so he can sleep, but he refused.

and he said, he had always slept early but wakes up with nightmares at midnight. Most of the times, it was the dream about his having disembarked in a Brazilian port with all the slums, and that he was left out by the ship and that he had no way of going out somewhere because had no money. He always felt alone and sickly.

despite his having a beautiful daughter who takes care of him in the absence of her mother who had to work in Chicago in order to send them money.

i shared some jokes, he laughed and he had no more desire to go home that night. It is about midnight, and the guests have already left, except the two of us

who shared the same nightmares as his beautiful daughter had fallen asleep not very much interested about our common nightmare.