Companion to the Five in Five

[Eluard]

Totally agree RM, Tz, that's a terrific poem. Yours too RM.

Loved:

Now that I’ve solved the puzzle of my new faith,
all I need do is wait for him to rise, to come leaping
out of his van, tripping over himself,
over all the flowers and balloons, to get at me
with my king-sized, cardboard check,

Great image!


(Are you two guys dating? I swear I see a similar theme in your two poems today.)

 

[Tzara]

(Are you two guys dating? I swear I see a similar theme in your two poems today.)

We're just good friends.

 

[sassynyc]

Even the dead,
you know, need a backbeat now and then.


i love this line. there's something hauntingly beautiful about it.

 

[sassynyc]

Hey no fair using those Manolo Blahniks — those things are like catnip. *Or maybe crack cocaine for the Sex and the City generation*

There isn't a woman born who can resist those things.

precisely....like crack cocaine. i suspect she knows this, crafty devil that she is

 

[Eluard]

precisely....like crack cocaine. i suspect she knows this, crafty devil that she is

She didn't mention that there's another pair under there in your size.

 

[sassynyc]

She didn't mention that there's another pair under there in your size.

and your point would be......?

 

[unpredictablebijou]

*

these.


want?

 

[sassynyc]

merci

 

[PandoraGlitters]

nice poems.

Hmm. Can a nice girl write poems that aren't so nice? I may have to work at that and see what I can come up with, next round.

 

[PandoraGlitters]

Y'all are crackin' me UP in here.

And yes, I am watching.

Pandora, they're right about you. And I do love a woman who can smoke a cigar.

And I personally have left a very nice pair of Manolo Blahniks in your size under the bed. Wayyyyyyyy under.

bj

Thank you, BJ. I'm honestly more of a Fluevog kind of a girl, but a smart woman never turns down sexy shoes.

And thank you especially for the kind word of encouragement.

*grinning between puffs*

 

[PandoraGlitters]

I love the Publisher's Clearing House poem, RainMan. The intense irony is mouth-quirking. Especially the image of the "place of hope" where valuable Chevy parts rust. Gorgeously awful and awfully gorgeous.

Your poem today is making me want to put a rl pic in my avatar. (I'm not delusional, damnit! I really AM a . . . ok. Just a goof really. )

 

[Eluard]

*grinning between puffs*

Course I didn't mention that the cigars here are all Cubans — perfectly legal here in Australia —so, ahhh, you can expect a visit from the FBI.

Sorry — I meant another visit from the FBI.

 

[PandoraGlitters]

*sigh* I'll have to change into my interrogation outfit again then. Pondering over undergarments: strip-search variety or innocent? Hmmmm decisions, decisions. Trust that as I endure interrogation, I'll never doubt but that the cigar was worth it.

Quite a vivid poem yesterday, Tzara: a romantic subject disturbingly portrayed. Well done.

 

[TheRainMan]

Merci beaucoup, mon professeur. Duh. It ain't like you am'nt spiritational. Nice poem yurself. I is jealous of your subject.

And when the crumpled post card I did send
With hope: Business Reply envelope sent,
I dreamt of meeting Mr. Ed McMahon
And TV cameras, pâté, no more Lent.​

i was thinking of dropping Ed McMahon's name when i was writing the poem, but then i got the feeling he was with another outfit and not Publisher's Clearing House.

. . . not that it would matter to the poem.

 

[TheRainMan]

Hmm. Can a nice girl write poems that aren't so nice? . . .

i don't know.

can she?

 

[TheRainMan]

Totally agree RM, Tz, that's a terrific poem. Yours too RM.

Loved:

Now that I’ve solved the puzzle of my new faith,
all I need do is wait for him to rise, to come leaping
out of his van, tripping over himself,
over all the flowers and balloons, to get at me
with my king-sized, cardboard check,

Great image!


(Are you two guys dating? I swear I see a similar theme in your two poems today.)

thanks, El.

. . . Tz answered the second part.

 

[Eluard]

*sigh* I'll have to change into my interrogation outfit again then. Pondering over undergarments: strip-search variety or innocent? Hmmmm decisions, decisions. Trust that as I endure interrogation, I'll never doubt but that the cigar was worth it.

They are Montecristos. So — they come with Monica's recommendation. *the advertising jingle is: she took the 'o' out of The Count of Montecristo*

A cigar and an interrogation? — sounds like a win-win to me.

 

[Tzara]

*sigh* I'll have to change into my interrogation outfit again then. Pondering over undergarments: strip-search variety or innocent? Hmmmm decisions, decisions. Trust that as I endure interrogation, I'll never doubt but that the cigar was worth it.

Quite a vivid poem yesterday, Tzara: a romantic subject disturbingly portrayed. Well done.

Thanks, Dora.

Nice Av, btw. Makes me wonder what virtual reality could do with that 2D object.

Oh, I know. Being Guy again. BAD ME, BAD ME.

Hey. I need to write a poem. Wait a sec. I'll be right back.

 

[Angeline]

Thoughts between the First Beer and Pissing in the Lake


1

The BLT club in the Tick Tock Diner tastes like cardboard.
I know this—yet I order one, and a beer to sit
on its chest and hold it down. I can’t remember
who said an American will eat anything if it’s toasted,
held together by toothpicks and has lettuce
sticking out the sides, but I bet he packed myrrh
in a former life. I’d even bet he’d be wise

enough to look for a leader these days
who didn’t insinuate the opposition was nothing
but a bunch of faggots and dykes,
who didn’t suggest we make love not war
while seeming about as capable of either as I will be
of finding my house by the time I get out of here.


2

Day is gone. Young men are supposed to live
for the dark, the limitlessness of possibility,
but with the third mug comes the vague hope

that night might pay attention to someone else,
of forgetting how light dots her

like drops of God.


3

Again, the holiday bells are ringing. Again,
someone has gone and told me
they love me. I want to give thanks, I want
to believe it. I want to believe
there’s a connection between bells and words—

beliefs are how I draw the perimeters of my prisons.


4

Losing count is how I know when Mexico’s finest
is becoming a truth serum. No one needs
to twist my arm to get it out of me. If they’re
willing to sit through the ongoing commentary
of everything I know but will never have use for,
it’ll come pouring out as if my mouth’s a tap.


5

Here in the pinch of our earth sandwich, pressed
as we are between opposable H’s, it’s hard
to know what makes us soar
or drop, who to hold
or let go. If only I could tell what was holy,

if only I could sit with you and walk away
without being charmed, if only I
wasn’t always sniffing for the drifting
smell of women in the air, could tell
the difference between shit and Chanel,

if only


6

............ saying goodbye to you
wasn’t dying a little,
didn’t seem so much like sawing off

an arm. If only your letters would stop
reading like a story
I already know. If only I could

make decisions
face down on the pavement.




.

This is excellent Patrick, evocative and universal and familiar. It also helps if one knows the Tick Tock Diner, which I do.

 

[TheRainMan]

This is excellent Patrick, evocative and universal and familiar. It also helps if one knows the Tick Tock Diner, which I do.

thanks, Ange.

you know Clifton? i thought you were the Trenton/seashore kind of Joisey girl.

 

[Angeline]

thanks, Ange.

you know Clifton? i thought you were the Trenton/seashore kind of Joisey girl.

I know North Jersey well, too. My grandmother lived in Passaic, I had a good friend from college (in New Brunswick) who came from Clifton, another friend from near Paterson. My dad ran a coin and stamp show at the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark every year...you get the idea.

And the Tick Tock diner is sort of a Jersey landmark, I think.

 

[Eluard]

And the Tick Tock diner is sort of a Jersey landmark, I think.

Has it featured in any films? Got any dirty photos to show?

 

[Angeline]

Has it featured in any films? Got any dirty photos to show?

It may have; I really don't know. Here's a link. New Jersey is well known for its early-to-mid-twentieth-century style diners, and The Tick Tock is probably the best example of them. I doubt its rep stretches across oceans, but if you're from NJ, as I am, you've likely heard of it.

 

[Eluard]

It may have; I really don't know. Here's a link. New Jersey is well known for its early-to-mid-twentieth-century style diners, and The Tick Tock is probably the best example of them. I doubt its rep stretches across oceans, but if you're from NJ, as I am, you've likely heard of it.

Thanks, Ange. There was a film in the early 80s called Diner, which I think was set in New Jersey (but it has been a loooong time since I last saw it). I just googled for images and yup, this looks like the place!

(But then I guess American diners are made to a template and probably all look a bit similar.)

 

[Angeline]

Thanks, Ange. There was a film in the early 80s called Diner, which I think was set in New Jersey (but it has been a loooong time since I last saw it). I just googled for images and yup, this looks like the place!

(But then I guess American diners are made to a template and probably all look a bit similar.)

That was a great film, sort of a thinking man's American Graffiti. For some reason, I think it was filmed in Brooklyn, but I'm probably misremembering. Many of those old diners have been moved to other parts of the USA and re-opened as 50's themed restaurants. When I was growing up in New Jersey they seemed to be everywhere; every town had one.