a ship's cook

A ship's cook  The sea is dark, clunky, and calm today slowly undulate  turns white where the ship's bow has plowed a furrow that stretches for miles. Gulls still follow us, shrieking and waiting for the cook to throw overboard waste food, tomorrow gone back to the coast waiting, for another ship I fiddle with the radio in the galley, find a good station  it saddens me also as it was it was my brother's favorite song   We left Antwerp 24 hundred hours ago, it had been hectic, long night, blaring music, whores and beer In the drunken haze, a nucleus of sobriety reminded  a longing for something  better, knowing this was a temporary and shallow as for now, I have a long day ahead of me, food to cook bread to make and the cleaning of pots and pans that is why cooks are temperamental  I feel safe in my little domain, a place the captain fear to enters. Yes, I'm sailing across the sea, and it is good to be alive on a day like this