The Corinth Canal Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

The Corinth Canal
We`re not sailing to the Athens, but follow the Corinth canal
to Piraeus not that I cared the ship was old and I fought a daily battle
to keep cockroaches away from the food we were slaves back then
working long hours and no cold water to drink- by the way the canal
has steep cliffs- and could have been built by the gods
Pre- container days, ships were longer in port, we made extra money
by selling American cigarette, no wonder, have you ever smoked
a Hellenic cigarette it tastes like an ashtray in a bar the night before.
I went to a Geek Orthodox church had a hangover felt I had to do
atonement from my excess would be nice they also handed out bags
of sweet cakes, I ate the cakes lined up for more but two heavyweight
priests with glutinous lips threw me out; I might have been drunk,
but I like cakes. Sat in the park with a woman they had thrown out
too, an old socialist so we chanted slogans against Greece and her lack
of democracy, the colonels who ruled back then didn`t take this lightly
I was arrested but bailed out by the captain who said I was a cook,
confused, but not a revolutionary.