Women Who Drink And Sex Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Women who drink and sex

It was in Livorno and it was a cold January night when I met her
in a bar- where else does one meet women, in the salvation army?
What she was doing in Livorno beats me as she was an American
woman far from home, I was there waiting for my ship to come in.
We were both drinkers and felt empathy for one another and when
the bar closed she came to my hotel. In the morning, I had a shower,
she was still asleep woke and asked what I was doing in her room
I told her it was my hotel room she cried; worked for the consulate.
We had breakfast, but she needed a drink to feel normal. Saw her go
into a taxi looking like an efficient functionary going to work, I knew
she could not keep it up the day of estimation was near, she left
a hundred dollar bill on my pillow I was both offended and pleased,
being a low paid seaman, my silence would be absolute. If she write
a book about this encounter I will somehow get the blame hinting
darkly she had been abused by me. But this is not true what the lady
long for is not being able to make love with abandonment and blame
it on the booze.