Downtown Guy I’m ona half-lit streetwhere feral catschase ratsfrom Norway and a pawnshop windowis hawking stuffI recognise and sirens roarsomewhere off stage and alleys smellof piss and cheap whiskey and I hear voicesbut don’t see faces and the bar’s so … Continue reading
Roll the Film, Gotham The source of nightfinally enters the city.Unwedded to sense,it conjures up a storm.An effort to become wholethrough union with anotheris thwarted by a stab of lightning,a roll of thunder.An imaginary picture in the mindis set aflame.So … Continue reading
Adolescence Despite his friends’ warnings,he fell in love with a red-haired girl.He took his feelings outside in the open,beat up a kid who said she had cooties.And was suspended from high school for his troubles. The red-haired girl is in … Continue reading
Luck I remain ever hopeful.Just looking for a sign that’s all.Doesn’t have to be a booming voice.Or a bright light through the window.It’s not as if disappointmentoverdoes the atmosphere.No deep bass notes on the piano,no owls at the windowor grim … Continue reading
Composting Earth’s been composting for centuries.Ted just hastens it a little.That wire-mesh bin is at the heart of it,five-sides and shiny wire,cut and assembled it himself.Twigs and roots, grass and rotting fruit –he stirs it together like making broth.Sure the … Continue reading
A Man in Neutral I won’t cut my arm just to see myself bleed.Nor will I roam the cemetery trails,as if the dead are the perfect company for the likes of me.Not that I’m about to take up dancing.Not with … Continue reading
Must be my lucky day. Look what I found on the sidewalk in a small Midwestern town at the turn of the 21st century. It’s almost midnight. The one street light is swinging like a pendulum. I saw it gleaming … Continue reading
A roller of fat cigars, the hefty guy whose arms are inked with devils and angels, short-skirted women showing enough leg to start the dogs barking, and an old lady selling flowers – I have ignored them all just to … Continue reading
A box of old record albums –Billy Joel,Donny Osmond,The Eagles,Partridge Family –ugh. And the covers are worn,the vinyl is scratched –no one’s going to buy theseeven at 50c apiece. Same as that ratty Cabbage Patch doll.Or the Miami Vice lunch … Continue reading
Humiliation barely registers in those downcast faces.I dare you to imagine where they come from,feel the beatings, suffer the horrendous rape,then watch the beatings, the rape of others.When were you ever woken up by soldiersin the middle of the night, … Continue reading