ON WATCH. by Don Robishaw

    Twists, squats, and cups his hands to block the wind and seawater. Wipes, tightens fists, and crosses his arms. Twenty-seconds between the last spray across the bow and the next. Calloused fingers remove lighter, snaps downward, and lights a new butt, as he shifts away from gale-force-winds. He sees nothing, but shades of black and white on the horizon.

   

Cold as cold can get in the North Atlantic. Part of this sailor’s duty is to stand watch four hours, twice a day, when the ship is out to sea.The sailor unties the draw-strings on his ditty bag, pulls out a stainless steel vodka flask. Not a good idea to drink alcohol when it’s this raw. He doesn’t give a penguin squat, for it is the only shit on board that’s still liquid. Unscrews the cap after the last wave and brings it to his lips and then says, “Nit, nit, nit, ah. Ahoy cruel world.”

Don Robishaw stopped working to write, he ran educational programs for homeless shelters for thirteen years. 

Don's also well-traveled, using various ways and means: Sailor, Peace Corps Volunteer, bartender, hitchhiker, world traveler, college professor, and circus roustabout.

His work has recently appeared in, The Rye Whiskey Review, Drunk Monkeys,O’ Dark Thirty, Literary Orphans, Crack-the-Spine, The Remembered Arts, Open: Journal of Arts and Letters, Flash Fiction Magazine, and others. His chapbook, ‘Willie’s Bad Paper Odyssey’ was a semi-finalist in Digging Press 2018 Summer Chapbook Contest.

He like to write poetry, satire, tragedies, and gritty fictional tales — of men and women from various backgrounds — that may have sprouted from a seed, from his past.

Many of the characters he developed have been homeless, served for periods of time in the military, or are based upon archetypes or sterotypes he's met while on the road.