No One Knows What It’s Like
to work at the boat house
to be sung to the music of The Who’s Behind Blue Eyes
remembering my first job up at Boston University, at the aspirationally named Sailing Pavilion — better known as “the boathouse”, tucked between the Esplanade jogging path and a backwater bend in the notorious Charles River, in the shadow of the graffiti-covered B.U. railway bridge
by Joe Váradi
No one knows what it’s like
To work at the boat house,
The boat house —
It really sucks
No one knows what it’s like
To be sweaty,
To be stinky —
For a measly faahty bucks
ㅤㅤBut those chicks
ㅤㅤThey totally dug it,
ㅤㅤThat grungy instructor vibe
ㅤㅤWe felt like rock stars
ㅤㅤUp at that blackboard
ㅤㅤTalking starboard,
ㅤㅤport tack and jibe
No one knows what it’s like
To have no plumbing,
And no outhouse —
When you have to go