odd time signatures

Glenoaks Boulevard

Posted by Karoli in News, poetry November 18th, 2008

The good part of the garage purge was finding the poetry I’d written back in ‘93-94. This one was published in a lit mag in 94. I’m publishing it here so I don’t lose it again…trusting Steve Gillmor when he says the cloud is the place to store your stuff.

there are ghosts on this street

great hulking trees

vague scent of eucalyptus on dying breeze

autumnal glow of leaves turning green red orange
summers’ fire caught in winters’ wet clammy grip
children’s laughter afloat across the bend
where the trees watched each other to see if they’d reach

crowded crazy street
engines race to capture their best time
Shelly gone in a flash once living now gone
no funeral for the young

empty schoolyard now
spectral shadows loom on terraces of the past
rings on the low one (for the little ones)
kickball fields on the middle one (for the adventuresome)
gilded asphalt on the upper tier (for the privileged)

Scary silhouettes dance across my heart
I was here but now departed
Prophets have no honor in their home town.
Socialites dance the cotillion of their youth
Someone’s gotta watch or what’s the point of dancing?

Now I stand watch over the new ones
I swear I left but still hear their voices whisper and scream
You’re back you never left and where are you going?

there are ghosts on this street

I’m one of them.

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