Now to slide sideways,
drop and crumple
an old red brick
from another era
when the fedora was common,
and I saw fewer omens;
Oliver Bagwell
made a fortune selling rags,
now he hopes to protect it all
by paying the gestapo minimum wage.
Maybe it's easier
at Cogswell's Cogs
walking through
the turnstiles
with an open bag,
a lump in the throat
from the roar in the vulture's red eyes-
time was
but not anymore
smoking my Winston
on the stoop
cause I wanted to
doffing my hat
to the pretty girls
as they went innocently by,
time was
but not anymore.
Oh! and the new suits they buy
while I go shuffling by
the anger hot in my eyes
at their mistrust,
If only they knew
what my sword could do:
If I wanted it to.
Author notes
See Charles Dickens, Hard Times
Written November 9th, 2004
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1 - 6 of 6
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You still kick poetic butt :-))
Love it!
~ Wendy -
I don't know quite how to follow every one else's comments here, but I am very glad I found your work. Thought this was a splendiferous write. Didn't connect with the Dickensian references, because I read the poem before the notes, but got very much of a 1930s depression feel, maybe because of the fedora and the "gestapo wages", and the general tenor of the poem. 'Doffing' is not a Cockney expression, and a stoop is a crossroads where often a gallows was situated. Anyway, I am really impressed by this poem whatever it is that makes it tick.
Edited on Nov 17, 10:28 because 'typos'. -
I quite like Louisa she is so suffery and icy and blue and cold and things and she doesn't conect with anyone and all of them are bit mechanical as it is London because that is what London feels like and when you stop walking on the bridges in London normally someone behind you pushes you to keep moving but sometimes there are the buskers like the saxman and sometimes there are the street painters and then you can go slow but hardly ever but I love it and I like Dickens because he's dry and mucky and gives characters dead cool names. Your poem thing all chokey like his book things with smoke and whatnot.
WICKED, YOU SAID DOFFING!
doffing
doffing sounds like a cockney sparrowism for MUCH more than simply tipping one's hat to the ladies...
“There seems to be nothing there but languid and monotonous smoke. Yet when the night comes, Fire bursts out.” Look I even found the fat book to find that. Special. Oh yes. -
phenomenal. I think you have chronicled the changes with wit and vigor and a sharpness known only to hot vulture eyes and milkless cereal.
stanza about the turnstiles is great, really gets at the dread, threatened on both sides, and which is the scarier? I would prefer to take my chances with the terrorists.
brilliant stuff, your royal luteness -
Nope, never read it. I do like Pip and Estella's story and I think I have an old copy of Tale of Two Cities somewhere. I watched the Flintstones.
I bought a fedora in a cool old hat box for $5.00 this past summer. It's grey and the hat box has the name of the haberdashery and a cool emblem from NYC. I like it but not sure what to do with it. But I like it anyway.
Well, I'm not much use here, I suppose. I was pissed at the Man - well not really the Man but a man who was supposed to representing The MAN. If we're talking about the same MAN, which I'm not too sure of now.
Oops. I think I just copied a portion of the Bimbo's comment. She is so smart she said that would happen.
I like the word stoop. It reminds me of sitting on mine as a kid. Stoop. It's a good word. Not saying nothing about Winstons.
Oh nice color combo though.
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Geeze I hate being the first. Everybody'll steal my comment. Oh well.
"And I never thought before, that I wath tho muth of a Cackler"
Hehehe. See, bimbos read too, amazing huh?
Pop used to wear a fedora ya know but he just called it a hat.
So you're Mr. Gradgrind? hehe. I don't think I've ever read Dickens and the Jetsons on the same poem before so this is a first.
Sounds to me like somebody's pissed at the Man.
Desiree
Edited on Nov 09, 10:10 p.m. because 'bimbo stuff'.
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