Just Two Rooms For Me and...
by Odin odin@aflx.com — Read all 3,869 poems by Odin odin@aflx.com
Even back in ’56, Manhattan made you a never ending promise… the one many usually spend a lifetime looking for. Of course today, there are many equally exciting cities of old and new to consider. But back then, for the starving artist, sublime was the find. A little Ginsberg, Bernstein, Camus…it never got better than this. What a romantic period. (An attempt to take some notes from my poetry journal and create some prosetry.) (Image by Pinterest)
Friday, January 13, 2017
Just Two Rooms For Me and …
by Odin Roark
‘56
First time
Hell's kitchen
Dollar a night
Two nights enough
Outa there
Sunday Times
Living for sale
Living for rent
Classified adventures unlimited
5 room too much
1 room too little
Gotta have my own bath
1˝ room
Former tenant barely out
"You paint. I pay"
"Landlord give gallon"
Chicken shit green the color
Mix with no-match left overs
Voila 2nd gallon
"Enjoy" he says
"First of the month
No pay
No sleep"
Pats his bulldog
"Barks like Great Dane, yes?"
My nod seals the deal
Move in
My own mailbox keys
Hot damn
Apartment
Regular entrance door
(always wedged open)
All mine now
Room
City
Streets
Finally
I've arrived
Here where once
An immigrant slept
Wall street clerk studied
An actor prepared
A piano teacher drank
All lived
The trading shifts of Manhattan
Here where my windowpane
Reflects the drugstore neon
Light show entertainment accompanied by
Garbage trucks and cab horns
Honk
Whirl
Crunch
Honk
Whirrrrrll
Crunch Crunch
Especially on bulky junk days
Yellow cabs
Brake
Curse
Pick up fares
Drop off fares
Relax when I can
Eat
Work
Eat
Try harder to relax
Work
Drink
Struggle
Don't relax at all
Get fired
Move out day
What I can carry on my back
Out go worn rugs
Chairs
Bookshelves
To the curb
Watch the city pass by
Incoming tenant eyes the chair
My kind of girl
I thought
Again
Yeah...
Time for new digs
Discover a new cave
Maybe a view of the night
Stars would be nice
Girls like the stars
Red-eye plane flights
Not so nice
Mess with my dream filled sleep
Some of those nocturnal wishes
Really do come true
A job
A girl
A two room palace
NYT rental page pays off
No more lonely
Yeah
Just two rooms
For me and...
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Still you didn't, as far as I know, go home with your tail between your legs like so many who, during that era and even since, go there with great expectations and fail miserably.
And, your reference to being close to the great thinkers of the era. I felt the same way being exposed to what was happening in San Francisco in the late 1960s. I even tried looking for an apartment there only to be discouraged by decrepit high rent, so retreated to my studio in paradise.
Ron
Love ya!
Jane