In memorium

‘Fancy a Cuppa?’

He opened
the wheelhouse door
and banged his heel
three times on
the steel deck.

‘Wake up Dad!'

Fifteen minutes later
a hatch opened and his father’s
hand appeared holding a
battered aluminum teapot.

Johnny arranged three tin mugs
in a line next to the binnacle
and filled them with boiling hot, black tea.

He opened a fresh tin of condensed milk,
tipped a third into each one
and then asked, ‘Do you take sugar?’

We declined.

He put six heaped spoons of it
into his mug, stirred it, lifted it,
narrowed his eyes and looked out of the window
to a far turn downriver,
then took a swig.

Three weeks later he died of a heart attack.

fromagreenhill.com