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Open Poetry #15
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RSWells
Member Elite
since 2001-06-17
Posts 2533


0 posted 2001-08-23 04:05 PM


     

Stainless steel skyscrapers
repel any notion
of absorbing the poor's plight.

Reflective glass designed
to mirror their shame
in expectation of vampiric invisibility.

Sheens of rounded
architecture deny the outsiders
grasp of interior purpose.

Just that it's off limits.

Benchless sidewalks
send scurrying any
intentions of actually living
let alone loitering downtown.

Bus shelters fleeting
occupation made miserable by
uncomfortable seating,
like all you can eat smorgasbords
with too small plates and
tiny chairs with 1/4 inch
cut off one leg.

Eat and get out.

The buses on the rundown routes
carry few if any working passengers,
just lip service to the voiceless,
cheeky excess of fleshy politicians.

Expresses lift frightened
blue collars to Park n Rides.

Overpasses affix blinders to those
secured from towering covered parking
through tree lined boulevards
to automatic garage doors.

To suburbia downtown's a fat (offensive word to some)
from which you tear off a piece
and smuggle it to the snuggle of home.

To its dollarless denizens it lacks softness.
It's the long lines of government,
courts of indeterminate
but definite sentencing,
hard surfaces, unkind smells
and less and less
opportunity to enter
it's doorways.

Lacking air conditioned isolation
the poor seek relief
through inaction,
alcohol, drugs, prayer,
the occaisional gift of a
warm breeze across the brow
when stooped or porched
awaiting nothing.

photo by the author



[This message has been edited by RSWells (edited 08-23-2001).]

© Copyright 2001 Richard S. Wells jr. - All Rights Reserved
Elizabeth
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Member Ascendant
since 1999-06-07
Posts 6871
Minnesota
1 posted 2001-08-23 04:14 PM


You've said it like it is. I don't know what else I can say about it.
Lady In White
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Member Elite
since 2001-02-12
Posts 2799
USA
2 posted 2001-08-23 05:30 PM



I've worked in big cities and small towns, both...

give me the small town, any day....

the drearies pushed me away from the lights that had too many shadows in the cities....

Excellent, Richard...enjoyed this!

Cpat Hair
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Member Patricius
since 2001-06-05
Posts 11793

3 posted 2001-08-23 05:35 PM


excellent work..and serious thoughts to ponder... Have I told you I enoyed your work? Well... I do.

good stuff!!!!

nakdthoughts
Member Laureate
since 2000-10-29
Posts 19200
Between the Lines
4 posted 2001-08-23 05:40 PM


Your words say soooooooo much...nicely  done!

~Wynter

Mysteria
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Member Laureate
since 2001-03-07
Posts 18328
British Columbia, Canada
5 posted 2001-08-23 05:41 PM


Oh Richard, this turned out fantastic!  You captured the essense of what you wanted to say with your usual eloquence, but that picture and yours poetry together are magic, pure magic!  I think we all see that, turn away most of the time, and are thankful we can go home, but you my friend, bring to reality the plight of those that can't turn a blind eye, for this is their reality.  Well done Richard, this was absolutely incredible.
catalinamoon
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Member Rara Avis
since 2000-06-03
Posts 9543
The Shores of Alone
6 posted 2001-08-23 06:56 PM


Great depiction of the situation. Very well done. Nice photography also.
Sandra

Janet Marie
Member Laureate
since 2000-01-22
Posts 18554

7 posted 2001-08-23 08:27 PM


Reflective glass designed
to mirror their shame
in expectation of vampiric invisibility.
=================================

the poem is as vivid and sharp as the impact of the picture...
the pic is awesome ...as is its perspective(the poem's as well)
you write the realites of the "haves and have nots" with a honest bitter edge, and thats the way it should be, as its a bitter pill...
but then reality always is.
very well done Richard
jm

poetsguild
Member
since 2001-08-12
Posts 85
Florida
8 posted 2001-08-23 08:34 PM


This work is so full of compassion
it almost bleeds. So many times
have I had similar thoughts when driving
in downtown areas. You caught the bull
by the horns and made it bellow
in the great tradition of the Beat Poets.

Job well done!
Take a bow.

Sven
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since 1999-11-23
Posts 14937
East Lansing, MI USA
9 posted 2001-08-23 10:07 PM


well done. . . a wonderful poem that contrasts the new and the old. . . and brings us to the center of both. . .

superbly done. . .

------------------------------------------------------------

To the world, you may only be one person. But to one person, you may be the world.

rwood
Member Elite
since 2000-02-29
Posts 3793
Tennessee
10 posted 2001-08-23 10:11 PM


I know this well. Progress pounds and knocks right up the side and in the skies of the poor. I ran from it but others, whether in their pride of little ownership or lack of no where else to go, grow mossy in the shade of the buildings. One step away from a highriser, a parking lot. That might have been a grassy field. Once upon a time.
You bring this to light so powerfully. You penned the reasons why, even with my last dollar, I packed up the mini-van and moved my kids to the country. Intense and yet compassionate write.

Sincerely,
Regina

Rosebud1229
Senior Member
since 2000-04-05
Posts 1813
North Carolina
11 posted 2001-08-23 10:13 PM


Very well written
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