and on the ship she read i will fear no evil

lounging on deck chairs
letting me go where i would
staring at the running water
contemplating shuffleboard
the swimming pools were all filled
with water from the sea
which burned my eyes
and deterred swimming
i entertained myself

until
someone from the crew
propositioned my mother

at which point
she decided i was not safe
i was nine
and without breasts
but

suddenly

my vacation was cut short

she attached herself
to a married couple with a son
more or less my age

i didn't like him, particularly

my days became
endless ping pong

my evenings
evil under the sun
murder by death
until i rejoined my mother
for exquisite meals
and
what i knew even then
were bad floor shows

he seemed to like me
marginally more than i liked him
and it may have been a form of rudimentary flirting
or it might have been something else

but he was continually and forever
calling me:
moose

which i hated
volubly

until
he just said it one time too many

at which point
i walked up to him
grabbed a big bunch of shirt
and pulled him to attention:

if you call me moose
one more time
i'm gonna beat the crap out of you

after that
she seemed to have time for me
mysteriously
again