Saturday, October 19, 2013

A Beat in Concord – v6

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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