At The Dinghy

Down at the dinghy

He wore khaki shorts

White t-shirt of Jerome the Ostrich

Playing the violin

Tanned skin

Sun bleached hair-just like his mother’s

He’s an admiral-nobody knows it

She tosses him the key chain

It lands square on his lap

She sits in the stern seat

The captain on her lap

She rocks him back and forth

Kisses the back of his neck

Musses  his hair

“Sailors don’t cry,baby, sailors never cry-

Only when their ships go down

Only when they’re shipwrecked-on rafts, with nothing to drink-“

He laughs, he giggles, he bounces on his mama’s lap.

EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2013

Altered Books: Nine Stories/J.D.Salinger