This poem was based on an elderly merchant seaman I met during a work-experience placement in a hospice. The nurses recollected some of the stories he used to tell of his times at sea and all that he had been through. However, after having had a heart operation. which left the large tattoo on his chest misshapen, he became increasingly passive and seemed to undergo a narrative reconstruction, defining himself as the helpless patient. He would whimper and cry out for assistance for the most trivial reasons and to see this proud man reduced to such a condition really struck a nerve in me.

It was certainly a challenge to write freely again after a long period of producing formulaic, scientific essays and although I knew what needed to be expressed, constructing a pattern and rhythm out of the words was not easy. Nevertheless this was an enjoyable and rather liberating exercise and one which I may endeavor to repeat (for myself) in the future.