I was sitting there
in the traffic, waiting for the light
the heat and humidity
building in her van,
one window open to
the moist air after the flooding
Only there for a
moment, in shadows, but enough to remember
caught by that sight,
his movements, with a purpose
under the highway,
waiting for the light
I saw a character, a
caricature, a man out of time
a frozen specter, a
cartoon character,
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 affect,
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 dimly 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 knowing
He’d written lines
far darker than these
in journey, in
notebooks, dog-eared from use
words that would
confuse and provoke
Unfairness of the
mundane, inertia
the bleakness of his
bourgeois existence
unaware of his place,
his role in the intelligentsia
A yawn at the coffee
house, or maybe a demigod
hard to say across
the street, as I was
driving by his path
for those few seconds
Before my light went
green and I went on down the road
away from the
college-aged, but no-longer-in-college Beat
walking, on the
street in Concord
Edited October 19, 2013
“A Beat in Concord – v6”
Edited July 2, 2013
“A Beat in Concord – v5”
based on original version
further edits June 30, 2012
(turning the poem to the
present tense)
further edits June 30, 2012
further edited June 6, 2012
(with edited by Elisha and Marshall Burns)
edited June 6, 2012
written May 18, 2006 5:59pm
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, 2013. All rights reserved. Contact me
at Ray Foss
for usage. See all 26,080+ of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com Poetry
Where You Live.
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