In Sign If I Cant

blueinthefaceblueintheface Posts: 153
edited November 2005 in Poetry, Prose, Music & Art
south bound
chicago red line
train number 116
zooms past,
with ghost faces
of ghost pasts
returning my empty exchanges.
I sit alone
in the third compartment
from the front
in eerie silence
and hollow
autumn stillness.

Train 166
passes me by
into its abyss
and I find
my eyes filled
with empty lots
and liquor stores
two Presbyterian churches
and still people
that dance
with Einstein's theories.
I wonder if Ulysses felt this
disengagement
before he left.

Screeching,
we stop
Lawrence Avenue
just another speedbump
on my journey.

An elderly man
steps from the painted yellow line
to the comfort
of the modern
electrical train.
I look askance
at his face
and cringe
mentally
at the scars
dotted
on his worn face
and the wrinkles
from years of stress
and childhood broken dreams;
that mask that
survived generations.

I gaze
from my youthful
blues
into his drowning eyes
and watch
footage
of the wars of old
and regrets of new
and the wish
to simply end in peace.
"be a philosopher but, amid all your philosophy, be first a man" - david hume

Mitch Hedberg- RIP 1968-2005. your jokes have laughed me through a lot. I thank you.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • twin1twin1 Posts: 902
    That is nice that you wrote that for him...good read.
    Our love must not be just words, but True Love, which shows itself in action,
    No one needs a smile more than someone who fails to give one,
    After you die...you know how to LIVE!
  • I felt like I was watching the scene unfold before me, blueintheface. :) That was great!
    Forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in. - Leonard Cohen
  • twin2twin2 Posts: 894
    I too enjoyed reading this one.
  • There is a book called Dandelion Wine written by Ray Bradbury that had quite an impact on me.

    The book is about the summer of some children in a rural area during the 30's. At one point in the book they say they've discovered a time machine. It's then explained that they visit the oldest man in town and have him tell stories of the old wars he fought in.

    Nice read.
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