The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poem Thread, 8/2/07 Bonus (by request: Jan Beatty)

[BlueIris]

"My Father Teaches Me to Dream"

You want to know what work is?
I'll tell you what work is:
Work is work.
You get up. You get on the bus.
You don't look from side to side.
You keep your eyes straight ahead.
That way nobody bothers you—see?
You get off the bus. You work all day.
You get back on the bus at night. Same thing.
You go to sleep. You get up.
You do the same thing again.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
There's no handouts in this life.
All this other stuff you're looking for—
it ain't there.

Work is work.

—Jan Beatty

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear BlueIris...

Now this one is rather grim!

But I guess it's reality for many people...

Thank you!

:hi:

[BlueIris]

2. Here's one that's a little less grim:

"Going Deep For Jesus"

Run to the street light, make a right
at the blue car, and go deep
—Sharan Watson

1981, I'm on the back of a cherry
red Kawasaki with my boyfriend Stush,
my biker jacket bought with a tax return
from a year of waiting tables, stuffed
in my pocket the bad check I wrote
to see Stevie Ray play the Decade.
Down Beck's Run we hit Carson, my cheek
resting on Stush's firm shoulder till
the ground rises up with the hulk of J&L
across the river, steel house that burns it all,
an up-against-the-wall-fuck, thick &
ripping, everything is smokestacks
& yellow blaze. We ride the river roads,
looking for deserted two-lanes,
newspapers stuffed under our leather
for warmth. I want to forget my name--
everything but the sharp lean into
the next turn, the cheap slap of the wind.
Stush brags about his water-cooled,
two-stroke engine, but I just want
the contact high of leather, metal,
and the slow burn of a few joints.
Past the bridges & bridges, we ride
away from our fast-food jobs and
run-down apartment, toward the smell
of the Ohio, its perpetual mire, the rotting
docks and lean-to's, to what we knew.
I knew the muscles in his back & his
low voice would make me come
back to my self. We stop near the bog
of the river's edge to have hard sex
on the ground, our jeans still on,
trying to shotgun a moment, to split open
our lives in the brilliant light until
we were the mills, we were the fire.
It was then I decided god and orgasm
were the same thing, that if jesus
had an address, it would be a dark two-lane,
if god were here, she'd shove down
like a two-stroke in a rainstorm,
she'd let it fly.

—Jan Beatty

[BlueIris]

3. ...and here's one that made me cry (in a good way):

"Modern Love"

Early evening, five minutes before
you're due home, I slam the dishes
in the dishwasher, squeeze rivers
of 409 onto the kitchen floor and
counters, smear it white with too many
paper towels, check the clock, listen
for the doorbell of your arriving—
Love, this is not my dreamscape
my answer to romance's longing—but Love,
still I grab old food from the refrigerator and sail it into the trash, call for
take-out with the breathy voice of
a woman in want—burritos again,
with enough jalapeño to make our eyes
water; Strange new world this shape
of our love: the details of our lives
stacked in piles of tabloids, month-
old pretzels in their lonely bag, and yes,
the paint peeling off the porch since spring,
no time now to wash the clothes. I do
the only thing a woman in love can:
clear papers off the bed with a wide sweep,
slide in the video, pour the soft drinks,
so we can eat in our element, our little city;
so we can tear open time to find the heart,
heart enough for us to fill our bellies and
fill our bodies with each other until
we surface to ourselves again, until we're
the only ones here tonight, and the look
in your eyes looking at me is the beautiful
sight, and my only complaints are two:
that I didn't make myself ready
for you sooner in life, that
I can't give better,
Love you more.

—Jan Beatty

[BarenakedLady]

9. *sigh*

"and my only complaints are two:
that I didn't make myself ready
for you sooner in life, that
I can't give better,
Love you more."


:cry:

[BlueIris]

12. I'm kicking this thread again, mostly for this poem. nt

[HEyHEY]

4. hey you

long time, no see

[BlueIris]

5. Uh, hi.

I've been around.

[BlueIris]

6. Kick. nt

[BlueIris]

7. Kick. nt

[BlueIris]

8. Since I'm still awake...kick. nt

[BarenakedLady]

10. Some days I feel like that

and I don't even have a job.

:thumbsup:

[BlueIris]

11. RetroLounge recommended this poet.

She's good, eh?