A Beat in Concord - v2

I was sitting there in the traffic, waiting for the light
the heat and humidity building in the van,
one window open to the moist air after the flooding
only there for a moment, in shadows
under the highway, waiting for the light

I saw a character, a caricature, a man out of time
on the sidewalk, under the underpass, half in shadow
He was a beat, a throwback, caught in time
not a Ginsberg, no he wouldn’t Howl,
a modern day Kerouac, or someone who aspired to be

It was his walk, his gait, his hair, his clothes
a slouched walk, bath sandals that had been worn outside too long
hunched shoulders, time spent in dim lit libraries,
before glowing computer screens, shaded lamps
an oversized blazer from the thrift store, elbows patched
over a frock prom shirt, frilled and with cranberry edging

I could sense the latte on his breath
smell of clove cigarettes in the wool of the coat
too warm for the day around him, swelter
a mop of coarse black hair
that hadn’t seen a brush in days
sunken eyes, and a certainty, a deep knowing
he’d written lines far darker than these
words that would confuse and provoke
unfairness of the mundane, inertia
bleakness of his bourgeois existence
unaware of his place, his role in the intelligentsia

A yawn at the coffee house, or maybe a demigod
reading the lines he might have written
hard to say across the street, as I was
driving by his path for those few brief seconds
before my light went green and I went on down the road
away from the college-aged, but no-longer-in-college beat
there, on the street in Concord


further edits June 30, 2012
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2012/06/beat-in-concord-v4.html
(turning the poem to the present tense)
further edits June 30, 2012
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2012/06/beat-in-concord-v3.html
further edited June 6, 2012 (with edited by Elisha and Marshall Burns)
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2012/06/beat-in-concord-v2-2.html
edited June 6, 2012
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2012/06/beat-in-concord-v2.html
written May 18, 2006 5:59pm
http://raymondafoss.blogspot.com/2006/05/beat-in-concord.html
written about someone I saw under the Exit 14 underpass, Concord, NH

All of my poems are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012. All rights reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss for usage. See all 21,710+ of my poems at http://www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com Poetry Where You Live.