Notting Hill Pubs
I wish I could send a letter,
I wish I could place a call,
sitting here alone at midnight
no luck at the Bait-And-Switch Bar,
singing karaoke love songs
and wishing on a star.
I can't recall the words,
can hardly read 'em, too;
bloody mary garlands
of celery and glamor screeching eyes!
singing karaoke disco tunes
and fill the blanks with sighs!
The Muses sing "last call"
for one more foaming beer;
stileto shoes and hips,
procreate the world new again
with the spirit toxic brew
and none will feel the pain.
7 comments:
I've read this poem several times since it first popped up at Google Reader. I'm trying to place you in there.
Sometimes when you write about this life of the ones who numb the world in bars and all, you are there a little bit, as if you lived it, but don't now.
It's not that I am prying into personal, no way. I just find it an intriguing voice you wield sometimes. With irony and sarcasm. But maybe a little identification.
I suppose it's that "bait & switch" line I put in. That is open to a lot of interpretation.
The greatest miracle of my life is the fact that I lived to be this old. My youth was irregular.
My friend Ulrike recently completed 30 linoprints in 30 days, posting each print on her blog. That project became an exhibition at Sheffer Gallery a few weeks ago.
Fascinating. Where is the blog with the prints?
Did you know much about God when you were young, Montag?
Also, the Bait & Switch line...its almost as if the poem alludes to trying that numbing way of life...as a sort of escape...and yet not finding success there at all, in the end. And then moving on, and then finding a new start in life that brings happiness and smiles. :)
But I like optimism.
Ben
I don't think I ever knew anything about God... but I met Him once.
And that probably won't happen again for a while.
I knew that "bait & switch" would haunt me. It might be one of those things that gets left out of subsequent drafts, but I think this had only one draft, so it stayed in.
Well, now that I'm thinking about it, there is more to it than shock and scandal, I suppose. As you point out, it could be a metaphor for redemption.
I sort of like that. If I follow it on re-working this, it will be a most unsual bit of poetry.
I've just looked up "bait and switch" and the meanings listed are not quite what I had in mind...
It was supposed to be a bit more... immense and emblematic, an experience that sears unto one's eyeballs.
I think this poem does need some serious work.
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