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Saturday, December 17, 2016

HEARTBREAK IN FADED JEANS

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads

I like it when a poem mentions a real place
like Omaha or Charleston as that immediately
tells me there won't be any faeries or elves in it
and so it's safe to continue and I like it when
a poem mentions a real thing like let's say a lonely
bus stop and I like it when a poem mentions real 
people like old lovers or new lovers and some
way that all these things come together like at a bus
stop in Omaha where a woman stands waiting for
what could be an old lover on a bus that doesn't
come and not how it makes the woman feel because 
we don't exactly know but how it makes the poet 
feel as he observes her from the gas station 
across the way and there's a chill in the evening air
and after a while he walks on over to inquire as 
to whether he can be of some assistance 
she is a dark haired woman who reminds him
of an old lover and she says where you headed
mister and he says Charleston and she smiles
and says oh that would be pretty far out of
my way as I live about five miles down the road
and he wants to say something but there's this little
voice telling him she's heartbreak in faded jeans
and he says well have a good evening then m'am
and when he pulls out of the station never to return
again he glances in his mirror and sees that she has
stepped off the curb and is thumbing for a ride and
in a New York moment (a pregnant one at that) he says
fuck it and turns the car around and you will write your 
own ending same as we all do in real life and that there's
the kind of poem I like now mister yes I surely do



20 comments:

  1. WOW! And this here's the kind of poem I really love, too, one that only you can write. LOVED this! Heartbreak in faded bluejeans....yup. I know that feeling! Havent been out of jeans since 1970.

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    1. And if you are wearing the same ones from 1970--they are truly faded (not to mention ripped, eh?)

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  2. I like to say I can imagine how it feels, and I can imagine that there is waiting needed... I like a poem that mend hearts en faded bluejeans.

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    1. Thank you sir. We all know that feeling of waiting for a bus that never comes.

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  3. So very clever - I've never read anything like it and truly enjoyed it - kept my interest the entire way through! A+

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  4. "never read anything like it"--now that's what I'm aiming for :)

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  5. That was fun, a with a non-self-conscious stream of consciousness feel. I just listened to Billy Joel sing a New York State of Mind and loved the part where he said he was taking a bus, "the Hudson line."

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    1. I like that song too, Colleen. And maybe it has something to do with I've been reading Kerouac lately :)

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  6. You put the post into postmodern in this piece, Tim. I think poetry needs to cut the crap, to be honest, so I like poems like these.
    :)

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    1. Cut the crap...EXACTLY, Kerry! Man, I've gotta have an experience that I can relate to when I read poetry...I love it, in all forms, but I can no longer wade through pretty language for its own sake, or line upon line of cryptic verse that takes me nowhere...I'd rather board that bus, 'cause at
      least I know it will take me SOMEWHERE--lol

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  7. damn, Tim, my new favorite of yours ~

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    1. So happy to hear that--all best to you for the holidays!

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  8. A lesson in poetry writing, Love it. Sorry for the occasional fairy that wings its way into my poetry. LOL

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    1. I don't recall any faeries in your poems lately...maybe I'll have to look farther back--lol

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  9. Well shoot, I like that kind of poem too.

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    1. Hey Mary...I'm glad you're the other Mary and not that other Mary I was thinking of.

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  10. This is brilliant! Sounds like my kind of poem as well.

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