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Critical Analysis #2
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Edgewise
Junior Member
since 2008-03-23
Posts 19
Chicago

0 posted 2008-10-06 01:39 AM


"If it ain't been in a pawnshop,
then it can't play the blues..."

     - Qwel


Dusty relics in menagerie
formation on the shelves,
sit decrepit and rejected
by their former owners.

They are detritus,
wartime consumers
having bought and sold
them for
pennies,
nickels,
dimes,
quarters,
and eventually dollars
to survive.
Such is the fickle fate
of economies and livelihoods.

Misunderstood as pieces of junk,
the future of these antiques is uniquely bleak.  
At least an individual can feed a trees roots
or remain alive in the memory of the collective.

Anthropomorphic pity?  

No.

It is recognition that the objects we take for granted
are reflections on our past,
and that these presents,
knickknacks,
trinkets, or
"pieces of crap"
are vessels,
containing little pieces
of peoples souls.  

I dare you to find one person
who has not clutched a toy or tchotchke
to their heart, even in the face of reason.  

Every pawnshop has its migrants,
or its sirens
singing
out of cheap guitars,
scarred by being dropped
one too many times,
abandoned because its owner
couldn't hold a candle
to the flavor of the month.

The bottom line is bought and sold,
for whatever the exchange rate
says someone's memory is worth.

Can you put a price tag on sentimentality,
dressed in thrift shop rags,
the smell of dust and age
permeating it until it too
is finally dragged, pushed,
thrust onto the dusty shelf?    

In this day and age,
what can't be bought and sold?  

Nobody ever finally looses their soul- they only piss away 99/100's of it.  

- Bukowski

© Copyright 2008 Edgewise - All Rights Reserved
chopsticks
Senior Member
since 2007-10-02
Posts 888
The US,
1 posted 2008-10-06 10:19 AM


Hi Edge, I like your rendering . I don’t know the form, but to me form dosen't really matter . I am interested in the content. and you have obviously  worked on the content.

But, I do have one question, what in the hell was Bukowski talking about when he came up with that quote ?



Brad
Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705
Jejudo, South Korea
2 posted 2008-11-16 04:15 PM


You keep the reader at a distance even with all of your talk of sentimentality and souls.

Why not concentrate on one trinket or instrument and tell that story?


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