She is the bohemian
Who grew up to be
A soccer mom.
Unlike most of her contemporaries
Who are dead or in jail
Or have gone insane
And become Christians.
She is cracking fifty
But she still
has a flair
In her camo
Utilakilt and
knee high boots.
She tells me stories
Of walking down
The middle of
The street late at night
Long ago tripping,
The street lights
And the stars
Melting into
A shower of sparks.
We listen to
Jesse Bernstein reading
His angry aggressive poems
On the stereo.
She knew him
Before he killed himself
She says.
The phone rings and it is her
Fourteen year old daughter
The one she fights with constantly
Calling with a question.
“Have you cleaned your room?
She inquires.
‘You have to clean your room first!”
Jesse launches into a long one
About how he always hated the look
Of his own face.
I wonder
If he would have
Ended up a Republican
If he hadn’t died.
Author notes
This poem maybe too specific. I am not sure how well known Steven Jesse Bernstein is outside boho circles in Seattle. He was a manic, confrontational poet and famous heroin addict who was on the verge of bigger things when he killed himself by stabbing himself in the neck. Subpop put out a CD in 92 called Prison of him reading. More Noise Please is one of his more famous poems. You hear it on college stations sometime. He makes Bukowski seem like a nice old man.
A contest entry
- A Contest for Cynics and Realists (Shed some truth for the world) by Fibe Kill-DFW Punk-.
462 points, ended October 26, 28 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Comments
1 - 5 of 5
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I don't think it's too specific...sometimes, it's needed to tell a story so it is understood by those who may not know the characters.
This kind of reminds me of the way my friends used to tell me my mum was so cool because she was different from their mothers. She was an artist, and dressed like an artist, so-to-speak, yet at the same time she was your typical hockey mum.
Enjoyed this
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great piece here
A+ enjoyable read
has everything for me
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Very good. I may have been reading it in the wrong way, but it seemed to be a bit choppy the way you spaced it. None the less, very good work. I don't exactly see how this fits into my contest, but then again, some of the contents were a bit foriegn to me.
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That is interesting; I had not heard of him but he's in the wiki.
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I love your style. I liked this poem alot. Thanks for the info about Bernstein, too. Much luck in the contest.
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