The frequent traveler often comes upon scenes such as the one depicted in this poem.  My husband, Bill, and I were priviliged to be invited aboard such a boat while anchored in a Caribbean harbor.  The boat people were collecting and selling empty soda bottles.  As our hosts they were delightfully sweet with such straight forward simplicity about their life views and very kind to us, and we in turn to them with stores and supplies from aboard our Snow Goose.        

 The World Traveler's Dedication to Sensitivity, a Poem:

Gusting To Zero

The ship's hold

Is a darkened belly,

Urine-splattered timbers

Saturated with spent hopes.

The fire tended on deck,

Carefully contained in a tub of sand,

Warms peas and rice,

Feeds two hundred people,

People just like you and me,

Probably nicer.

This poem is from No Name Harbor, Poetry of Barbary Chaapel

To read more poetry from this book and other books by Barbary Chaapel please go to

http://barbarychaapel.eveusa.com