In the manner of Edward Thomas's poem "Adlestrop."




02128

Of course. I can recall East Boston

The way it was when I was ten,

When Mamma Rosa stirred her sauce

Or "gravy," as I called it then.

 

I still hear Logan’s jumbo-jets

Vast-wing’d and screeching overhead,

Their noise like brutal fighting words

From toughs who’d gladly see me dead.

 

Kushner’s had shoes. Roy's had cold cuts.

Sound Factory had 45s

From disco divas and rock bands:

“Freak Out” and “Born to Be Alive.”

 

And after school, I'd ride the bus

Where older women aged thirteen

Would tease me till my soul shrank back

To my own world where girls weren’t mean.





Poetry by Uncle Meridian The PoetBay support member heart!
Read 284 times
Written on 2022-08-02 at 11:21

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Sameen The PoetBay support member heart!
Aha, you've captured adolescence well. Man, the poem's ending is killer. Nice one.
2022-08-05


D G Moody The PoetBay support member heart!
Excellent as always Thomas; I particularly enjoyed the rhyme sequence, not to mention the evocation of younger days: "older women aged thirteen" is perfect. Bravo!

Dougie
2022-08-03


Griffonner The PoetBay support member heart!
Read it and weep fellow poets... that they aren't your lines!
(The final stanza could have been written about my after school bus rides!)
Allen
2022-08-02


Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
How interesting. You mimic Thomas' rhythms while seeming to turn his poem inside out. His describes a tranquil rural scene, yours the whirl of urban life.
2022-08-02


jim The PoetBay support member heart!
The shorter lines, tetrameter (I think), bring intimacy to the poem in a "less is more" way, sharing confidences, quietly.

Very enjoyable, U.M.
2022-08-02