Memory
Posted: November 5th, 2009, 4:49 pm
This is a rather long poem I am working on. I have never written poetry in long form before. I'm usually a writer of Haiku or other short form pieces. It is an autobiography called Memory
Dreary drizzle on downtown pavement
Shoes - puddle slapping across the street
Sea gulls hang as kites below grey carpet above
The air has a strange crispness
Shivering beneath my jacket
Brown leather worn with age
Like my own skin
Creased
Grey haired – naked head
Like my Father & his too
In small tobacco plant village
Farms and dust
Blown wind
Owls – hawks
Bobolinks - early morning song
Railroad tracks
Detroit Niagara
In their backyard
One legged John lived in
Asphalt shack – next to the tracks
Once worked on railroad
My Grandfather too
Grandmother made perogies
Old country
Austria – Poland – Ukraine
Cabbage rolls
My Dad their son
Left the village behind Off to the city
Small boy – big fish
Manitoba
Now Toronto – 1940’s
Smelly port – No condos yet
Kensington then Jewish market
Now for nouveau hippies
Just down the street from my office
Where I sit now – with these words
Married Mom –> Me 7 years later
In sad east end Toronto
Dad worked at Ford
Down the highway
Mom, Sister – just a baby & I
Home on Dead End Street
Learned to ride a bike
Lived in a tree
School bell rang
I’m late again
Off to the burbs
Just a short stay
Golden Mile Plaza – Beatle songs
Pet rat
Mom gone bowling
Then ------
Country roads
Moved north
Old farm house
New baby brother
Wild freedom – hawks & owls
Picked up a paint brush – it started then
With birds
Ground hog eats potato peels
Baby skunk, porcupine,
Sad old barn
Cow skeletons – left behind
Deer in the orchard
Eat low hanging apples
Wolves howl at night
The crow starts my day
Dead dog under the mailbox
Red flag up
Dad’s Volkswagens
One rolled over
On late night drive home
One sat in the driveway and burned
Tractor rides
Great smiling farmer
Potato machine too
That earthy musty smell with me today
Thick muddy fields
Sis and I run through fields of rye
Sticking to our clothes
Took the school bus sis and I
Bright yellow driven by smiley old guy
Pine thick smelling forest
Mushrooms picked from ancient soil
Dusty dirt roads
Wind up and down fast driven hills
Rabbit in the long grass
Sis and I give chase
Where’d he go?
Our school all new – modern
Principal with corduroy jacket
He smoked a pipe – played guitar
Folk mass in the gym every Sunday
St. Marks
It’s yard with space to run
1967 trip to Montreal – Expo 67
Took pictures with Dad’s camera
Apollo capsule
Moved left the farm behind
South shore of a small lake
Lots of fishing my friend and I
Big ol pike and jumping bass
Bicycle all summer with school chums
Real Huck Finn existence
A new baby brother – now we are four
Then change
The kind that shakes a boy to his boots
Oh it’s not the pleasant kind
Night time eruptions
With violent sounds from the night
Parents yelling – screaming
Dishes breaking
Lives breaking
Marriage breaking
Lies deceit
It’s all there
It’s all gone
Dad has a new wife
Her kids and they have one too
Home is behind me
Now I’m with strangers
I roam a strange town
New baby sis cries
In my room alone
Paint some murals
Change the view
Paint one at high school too
Played hockey - not very well
Softball as well
Sneak out for a cigarette
Drinking & marijuana
Pink Floyd
Led Zeppelin as well
New ally in wild teen years
Crazed school skipping days
Downtown buy some beer
Laugh at it all
One stormy January night
His car took him to his end
Alone again I cried
Had to bust out
Get free
The town
The strangers
That - family?
Going to high school
Living with new girlfriend
Sex – but love?
I said those words
No echo
She too in separated
Family?
Concerts, parties
Part time jobs
Dear her dear me
Dreary drizzle on downtown pavement
Shoes - puddle slapping across the street
Sea gulls hang as kites below grey carpet above
The air has a strange crispness
Shivering beneath my jacket
Brown leather worn with age
Like my own skin
Creased
Grey haired – naked head
Like my Father & his too
In small tobacco plant village
Farms and dust
Blown wind
Owls – hawks
Bobolinks - early morning song
Railroad tracks
Detroit Niagara
In their backyard
One legged John lived in
Asphalt shack – next to the tracks
Once worked on railroad
My Grandfather too
Grandmother made perogies
Old country
Austria – Poland – Ukraine
Cabbage rolls
My Dad their son
Left the village behind Off to the city
Small boy – big fish
Manitoba
Now Toronto – 1940’s
Smelly port – No condos yet
Kensington then Jewish market
Now for nouveau hippies
Just down the street from my office
Where I sit now – with these words
Married Mom –> Me 7 years later
In sad east end Toronto
Dad worked at Ford
Down the highway
Mom, Sister – just a baby & I
Home on Dead End Street
Learned to ride a bike
Lived in a tree
School bell rang
I’m late again
Off to the burbs
Just a short stay
Golden Mile Plaza – Beatle songs
Pet rat
Mom gone bowling
Then ------
Country roads
Moved north
Old farm house
New baby brother
Wild freedom – hawks & owls
Picked up a paint brush – it started then
With birds
Ground hog eats potato peels
Baby skunk, porcupine,
Sad old barn
Cow skeletons – left behind
Deer in the orchard
Eat low hanging apples
Wolves howl at night
The crow starts my day
Dead dog under the mailbox
Red flag up
Dad’s Volkswagens
One rolled over
On late night drive home
One sat in the driveway and burned
Tractor rides
Great smiling farmer
Potato machine too
That earthy musty smell with me today
Thick muddy fields
Sis and I run through fields of rye
Sticking to our clothes
Took the school bus sis and I
Bright yellow driven by smiley old guy
Pine thick smelling forest
Mushrooms picked from ancient soil
Dusty dirt roads
Wind up and down fast driven hills
Rabbit in the long grass
Sis and I give chase
Where’d he go?
Our school all new – modern
Principal with corduroy jacket
He smoked a pipe – played guitar
Folk mass in the gym every Sunday
St. Marks
It’s yard with space to run
1967 trip to Montreal – Expo 67
Took pictures with Dad’s camera
Apollo capsule
Moved left the farm behind
South shore of a small lake
Lots of fishing my friend and I
Big ol pike and jumping bass
Bicycle all summer with school chums
Real Huck Finn existence
A new baby brother – now we are four
Then change
The kind that shakes a boy to his boots
Oh it’s not the pleasant kind
Night time eruptions
With violent sounds from the night
Parents yelling – screaming
Dishes breaking
Lives breaking
Marriage breaking
Lies deceit
It’s all there
It’s all gone
Dad has a new wife
Her kids and they have one too
Home is behind me
Now I’m with strangers
I roam a strange town
New baby sis cries
In my room alone
Paint some murals
Change the view
Paint one at high school too
Played hockey - not very well
Softball as well
Sneak out for a cigarette
Drinking & marijuana
Pink Floyd
Led Zeppelin as well
New ally in wild teen years
Crazed school skipping days
Downtown buy some beer
Laugh at it all
One stormy January night
His car took him to his end
Alone again I cried
Had to bust out
Get free
The town
The strangers
That - family?
Going to high school
Living with new girlfriend
Sex – but love?
I said those words
No echo
She too in separated
Family?
Concerts, parties
Part time jobs
Dear her dear me