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007 Challenge

1 - The Seamy Side of the Street

1. Working Girl

With her crayola smile
Geranium Lake bleeding
onto her pearly-whites
she stands on Fourth and
Sherbourne ‘cos that’s
the heart of her beat.
Black ‘n white striped
hot pants painted on
over fishnets and perfume,
she bends and peers then
scowls and sneers as the car
pulls away hastily. It’s not
warm enough for shorts
and sequins that magnify
her shivering but, shit,
she looks a million with
her Pretty Woman wig and
her geranium stained lips.
It’s not only the cold
making her shake, she's
feeling the need but some
trick will like what he sees,
sooner or later.
 
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2. The Seamy Side of the Street

2. Gimme Shelter

The palettes beside mine
is too close, he mumbles
in his sleep between snores.
The mattresses under me is
thin but it’s warm and dry
and softer’n any sidewalk
or park bench.

We’re all
men, all colours from all
walks of life and all in need
of sanctuary of one kind or
another.

Each shelter is
different, different rules,
different welcomes and different
cliental. Some allow pets,
some the carts fellahs use,
some serve food – those
have line-ups round the
block starting to snake at
four.

Mostly it’s sullen silence,
men wrapped in worry or
hung-over with no desire
to share. Other nights chat
starts up, hard-life stories
from the fallen high-fliers
or anecdotes that gets us all
guffawing like seals. Those
are the good times until dark
brings sleep along with the
dreams, seldom sweet.
 
Hey GP :) Nice to have the company. I like the installments to your series, so far. You tell such compelling stories with your poetry.
 
1-3

Relegated to a memory
tucked away
wherever you keep
used-to-be

Left to recover
from the what-the-fuck
of your dismissal
to wonder when
I became optional






.
 
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3. The Seamy Side of the Street

3. Life a La Cart

Mine’s an older model, small metal grid
so stuff don’t fall through so much.
I like that, lost too many toothbrushes
and skinny stuff before I went retro.
There’s no tray underneath like
with the newer ones, I have to curb
my hoarding instinct. The wheels
squeak now but it’s a cheerful
squeak like singing, kinda. Sometimes
we whistle a duet, makes people smile
as we pass which is better’n being invisible.
Carts are premium now most lots chain ‘em
so I keep my eye on Clarabelle,
that’s what I call her. My dad always named
our cars when we were kids, so I’m
just keeping up with tradition.
 
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Guiltypleasures

Damn if your narrations arent almost always exceptional
you paint with words whole scenes and allow a reader to backfill an entire lifetime that leads upto a point!!
Really enjoying this.

Calli keep doing what you're doing you can write!
 
todski28 said:
Guiltypleasures

Damn if your narrations arent almost always exceptional
you paint with words whole scenes and allow a reader to backfill an entire lifetime that leads upto a point!!
Really enjoying this.

Calli keep doing what you're doing you can write!
Click to expand...

Thanks tod, it's oddly fun writing about things I know little or nothing about, honest. :D
 
GuiltyPleasure said:
That's often how the best poems are born. :D We can always buff them up later if necessary.
Click to expand...

I think the most important thing I got from doing the 30/30 the first time was getting used to just writing something and not worrying about it being just right. I don't get quite as stressed about writing and posting as I did prior to doing it. These threads that prompt me to write regularly are helpful. Otherwise, I might revert back to writing something once every couple of months. :)


todski28 said:
Calli keep doing what you're doing you can write!
Click to expand...

Thank you, tod. I'm writing, anyway. If I manage to do it well on occasion, that's a bonus. ;)
 
Lyricalli said:
I think the most important thing I got from doing the 30/30 the first time was getting used to just writing something and not worrying about it being just right. I don't get quite as stressed about writing and posting as I did prior to doing it. These threads that prompt me to write regularly are helpful. Otherwise, I might revert back to writing something once every couple of months. :)
Click to expand...

I agree it's a great exercise and if a lot of the resulting poetry is drek there's also some keepers too. I'm enjoying your company on this ride. :)
 
4. The Seamy Side of the Street

4. Candy Man

I suck 'em in and spit ‘em out.
I’m a one man sweet dispenser,
no overheads or underlings.
Make sure the stuff’s pure
Colombian ferried by frightened
fools for more money than
they deserve for not sweating
under pressure. Guaranteed
no cut-in talcum, chalk or
powdered milk. Word gets out
where the bad stuff comes from,
I don’t need hostility. Whether
cokeheads chase the dragon or
snort lines off their crystal tables
makes no mind to me as long as
the paper’s clean and green and
keeps coming, I got bills to pay.
 
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GuiltyPleasure said:
I agree it's a great exercise and if a lot of the resulting poetry is drek there's also some keepers too. I'm enjoying your company on this ride. :)
Click to expand...

I'm enjoying yours, too. :)

Still really like what you're doing with your series.


By the way, you have a misplaced apostrophe in 'em on the first line of Candy Man.
 
1-4

That sigh breaking
our silence
said everything
made me catch
my breath
wishing
it was yours
 
1-5

Some days
I try to make poetry
of the pain
articulate the way
muscles tense
eyes overflow
and it all comes
rushing back again

The words
are never right
leaving me
when I want them most
cold and angry
grasping for answers
I'll never find
elusive as your ghost
 
5. The Seamy Side of the Street

5. Handout

It’s so easy to walk by
silently saying “get a job”
and thinking “oh sure! I’m
going to foot your next fix.”

But what if we knew them,
Thought of their mothers, siblings,
kids? What if they haven’t eaten since
the night before last? Perhaps it’s
a string of bad luck that finds them
lower than ever before, no fault of
theirs, the recession, cut-backs,
“progress”.

This one was a field operator
on the oil patch, N. Dakota
until The Collapse and Saudi greed.
Here’s an addict, yep, he’s a user
but only since that one hit at a frat
party in ’85, instant bondage. The
fifty-ish woman with her hand out
is only twenty-five with two girls
in care and her man doing ten. She’s
looking for bus fare to get to ‘frisco
to see her kids.

And it’s not just big cities
that spawn the walking
wounded, they’re in Littleville all
over the world just in need of a
little luck and a friendly face.
 
1-6

That song plays
and you dance
through my memories
to the four-four beat
of my aching heart
 
6. The Seamy Side of the Street

6. Another Bloody Busker

Accepted to Julliard,
at nineteen and change,
“promising” they said.
Stars in my eyes,
stars on my mind.
One night’s careless
acceptance of a ride
in a drunk’s car with
three others. Waking
up with a shattered
spine but the others
didn’t wake up at all.
Constant pain, short term
work with music my
only salve so I share,
here in the ticket halls of
Baker Street or Barbican
where commuters chase
connections . Most days
my violin case yields
as much as I need
and my needs are small.
 
1-7

Fragility

Fractured reflection: I wonder if you like the sound of breaking glass.
 
7. The Steamy Side of the Street

7. Corruption

From the bleak streets of downtown
to the back alleys behind bars and
businesses, reeking of rot of all kinds,
we come spilling out like the spoiled
bok choy and bananas.

The disappointed, the disenfranchised,
the addicts and gamblers. Losers in love
and losers in life all drawn like night-fliers
to an irresistible light.

Huddled numbers in empty lots
and underpasses passing the time, each
of their own choice. Some smoking,
joking aside, some singing drunken
ditties from distant infancy and some
holding out hope that tomorrow a good
thing will happen.
 
GuiltyPleasure said:
High-five sis! What's next? :D try the Gunfight, it's scary fun.

did you just give yourself away in the double-blind challenge? :eek:
Click to expand...

High five right back at ya! I've enjoyed your pieces. I can't come up with that many words seven days in a row. Though, I suppose that became obvious. :)

Me? In a gunfight? Writing quickly is not my forte. Writing slowly is challenging enough.


:cool:
 
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1-1 Travel missives

Air travel

I used to enjoy flying, my
first flight in the jump seat of
a corporate jet - Calgary to Omah
then Greyhound to Coffeyville.
Later it was still exciting
the food tolerable, and
the stewardesses friendly
Although there was the smoke,
Now the smokes gone but
so is the food and the friendly.
 
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