Canal Denizens

Abora

9/7/17 2:48 PM

"Hippie Hippie Hourrah" -Jacques Dutronc, 1968

 

The old masters howl at me

Unfettered by plastic furniture, unstable and shoddy

Their words pour out of print and into my coffee

Making its dark heavenly caffeine go straight to my heart

Like church bells, the canal bridge rings out a warning and lifts

Letting through misplaced nomads and hobby ships

 

This town is loud

Each beater car screeching to let runners pass

Degenerates not unlike myself loiter and smoke

Bloody stumbling down sidewalks, past cheap beer and dreary antiques

 

This bridge has deeply inconvenienced the traffic

Stopping for five minutes at most

They swerve and run from the short delay

It's like they have places to be

Why do people move so fast?

The thrill of speed in this canal town does not come from automobiles in slow motion

It comes from the minds of the denizens

 

The tapout shirt wearing bike mechanics

The runners speeding by in tight shorts

The pretty women on longboards and xanax

The misplaced new yorkers trying to find concrete wildlife

The pretentious poet writing outside the coffee shop

 

Once the bridge lifted, the pause gave way

The screaming cargo trucks flew by

And once again ignored the operatic bustle

Of the canal's denizens

  • Author: Big Swifty (Pseudonym) (Offline Offline)
  • Published: September 7th, 2017 21:03
  • Category: Reflection
  • Views: 30
  • User favorite of this poem: b-LAH-que.
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Comments1

  • Nicholas Browning

    This is pretty good. A more realistic tone and style, which is appreciated. The way you connect your structure gives off a solitary state of mind, and it enhances the theme of a darker depiction of everyday life. Like I said, this is good. Bravo.

    • Abora

      Thank you for the praise, it means a lot.

      It's getting harder and harder not to see the darker side of everyday life, and being able to display what I see helps. Even more so when I know that someone else out there can read my words and see what I see.

      Thanks for reading.

      • Nicholas Browning

        You're very welcome.



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