we do not advocate sleeping
in doorways or corners –
the breeze is always too breezy,
quarters too cozy…
and maybe it’s a small-town thing,
but the hubbub doesn’t glow
and windows aren’t so clear
as they’re perceived
come half-past time to move inside,
it’s every straggler and his boxes,
though maybe we’ll embellish
with some string, lend a little hand
but see now, the big one points
– one step in or one step out? –
says it’s time to shift or time to lose
and all the time, he really means
the glass is thinning out
Author notes
Written February 11th, 2006
What did you think
Comments
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What I liked about this, is the clever use of metaphors and allusions to passing time, to the point that the whole poem can be taken as a metaphor for time moving on, and the 'you must settle down, get stability before it is too late' that people are forever being told by people who already have stopped moving, and for whom, to a certain extent time has actually stopped, or they are just marking it until they die.
Maybe I am well off mark, but readers bring their own baggage to poems don't.
On a literal level, I am living above a shop and people are always in the doorway of an evening- young people drinking tinnies and cuddling because they have no where else to go. I don't mind, so long as they respect me and my property. There was one crowd that were rude and abusive. It was during a foot and mouth episode here and the business deals with a lot of Dales farmers, so I was quite sensible to soak the mat in the porchway in bleach.
Trousers with artistic patchy bleahced bits are quite cool, aren't they? Those kids never darkened my doorway again.
Anyway- good poem. Thank you for stopping by mine- I turned this one up on the RTF key- see it is an old one so you have probably forgotten about it by now.
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what a wonderful poem - so evocative! no overt statements to let the reader know exactly what is going on. but plenty of clues to give us a way to interpret this poem.
a great title.
i'm not sure what to make of the last verse as the first line of it is a big puzzle for me. and the introduction of 'he' makes me wonder about the point of view here.
could you please give me some clues about this fin\al verse, so i can commment more on this poem?
best wishes,
myron.
PS thank you so much for your comments on my recent posting.
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I really like this although I don't know what to say about this. I have nothing constructive to say tonight. But this took me downtown in a weird sort of way. Great poem.
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