The Long Travel Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

The Apprentice

Every morning he took a short bus ride
to the factory where he was learning welding
a thing to know if you are building a ship.
One day he missed the bus got lost and began
Walking, took the wrong turn and the vista
a new life of adventures opened up.
He has done many jobs, like being a cowboy
in Montana, a tourist guide in Peru,
a short-order-cook in New York and running
Errands for the localMafia.
He sailed on every ocean, worthy of its name,
been in love a hundred times, yet he hankers most
for the girl he met in Honduras, her father was
the fisherman Hemingway wrote about.
50 years learning curve, but sad to say he
can't weld two pieces of iron together, and guess what
my life has been a hell of a ride