Glen Slater is a friend of mine; despite the fact that I
know almost nothing about baseball. He’s generous in that way. He forgives me
my shortcomings. He also writes stories and verse, of which I know a bit more than
baseball. That's him in the red shirt in the front row above.
This poem was written by Glen last year and is a perfect example of
the free verse I wish I could write. Of course, Glen thinks it’s no big deal.
But that’s because it’s easy for him. He has a blog of his own on Wordpress;
though he hates the word “blog.” I hope you will drop in on him sometime at his
site;
“Under the El Tracks”
by Glen Russell Slater
I feel so naked
and awkward
In the sunshine
As if I’m being
X-rayed by the stuck-up jerks on Lefferts Boulevard
In the rain I have
some shelter
No one sees me.
But not in the
sunshine, which exposes me.
Under the el
tracks, they share a kind of common misery
Under the el
tracks, I don’t feel so alone in my loneliness.
I wish that I
lived near the el tracks
that would cover
the boulevard
And I could get
lost underneath the din and the dark
and the vibrating
roar that envelops your ears and your entire body
from your head to
your shoes.
Of the el Train of
Jamaica Avenue in Woodhaven
Or the el tracks
on Brighton Beach Avenue.
Once upon a time,
One Brooklyn
winter,
I made sandwiches
at Perlmutter’s Luncheonette on Brighton Beach Avenue
Under the el
tracks.
I used to screw up
the sandwiches and give the wrong change
because I was so
nervous as I was scrutinized by the tough guy jerks
who went in there
to place bets
On basketball
games.
They’d eat
sandwiches and drink coffee and talk about the point spread.
And that
funny-looking damn little Russian, that genius, wise-ass teenager
who worked there,
too.
He made everything
look so easy;
I wished the
bastard would go back to the Soviet Union.
I’d deliver those
sandwiches to those batty Russian broads every day
in that beauty
parlor
above Weintraub’s
hardware store
That was in the
mid-80s.
But I didn’t know
how good I had it……..
Lost underneath
the el tracks.
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