IN A SMALL BOAT

That we would go sailing
with a cancerous man
is a fact.

That the huge nylon lung
would swell full and
sure somedays,
is not questioned.

And when the wind would
choke over the hold, and
the cancerous man would
rasp "don’t let ‘er Luff
boys, keep ‘er in the wind"
It is well known that we
would try.

But we were boys in a small
boat
with a cancerous man
at the tiller.