two poems...transcribed as they appear in pocket-sized memo pad they were written in
TWO POEMS
white paint
peeling off redbrick
top three stories
neglected by urban renewal
snow mounds
splattered city brown
sidewalks
slick with melt
while in this café
a man talks to himself
drowned by hum
of espresso machine
and fat
chewed by four people
years combined sub eighty
behind the counter
waiting
for another
pour
*
sun shines over the
old bank now full
of fish and research vaults
seven withered wreaths
laced with burnt out lights
fucking iron gates
wrought 1825
beribboned in red
bows hanging heads
like sunflowers weeping
in gardens of concrete
and stuck breathing toxic
tobacco smoke fumes
from exhaust pipe heads
and the sun climbs
higher
bathing all in
snow-melting light
aloof and uncaring
of the man in sunglasses
indoors
and illuminating auburn of
Turkic girl’s bun
she’s pretty and sits
eating yogurt
from chipped ceramic
bowl with teaspoon
held adroitly in
thick peasant hands
untouched by toil
milk white
in the sun they
untie her bun
spilling heavy hair
down to the seat
of the chair
the clicking
of the spoon
moist with her saliva
in her bowl
measures my time
in rhythmic tocks
and ticks of
metal
on glazed
and fired
earth
2.20.2014, 11:00-11:47am, Union & Purchase Sts., New Bedford, MA
white paint
peeling off redbrick
top three stories
neglected by urban renewal
snow mounds
splattered city brown
sidewalks
slick with melt
while in this café
a man talks to himself
drowned by hum
of espresso machine
and fat
chewed by four people
years combined sub eighty
behind the counter
waiting
for another
pour
*
sun shines over the
old bank now full
of fish and research vaults
seven withered wreaths
laced with burnt out lights
fucking iron gates
wrought 1825
beribboned in red
bows hanging heads
like sunflowers weeping
in gardens of concrete
and stuck breathing toxic
tobacco smoke fumes
from exhaust pipe heads
and the sun climbs
higher
bathing all in
snow-melting light
aloof and uncaring
of the man in sunglasses
indoors
and illuminating auburn of
Turkic girl’s bun
she’s pretty and sits
eating yogurt
from chipped ceramic
bowl with teaspoon
held adroitly in
thick peasant hands
untouched by toil
milk white
in the sun they
untie her bun
spilling heavy hair
down to the seat
of the chair
the clicking
of the spoon
moist with her saliva
in her bowl
measures my time
in rhythmic tocks
and ticks of
metal
on glazed
and fired
earth
2.20.2014, 11:00-11:47am, Union & Purchase Sts., New Bedford, MA