The Alone Trials
by Odin Roark

’56 was the year.

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
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
Honk
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
Not me though
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 sleep where
Wished upon dreams
Really do come true
A job
A girl
A two room palace

No more lonely

Yeah

Just two rooms

Alone trials for me and...