Streets Quartet

[EleCivil]

A little set of four poems based on four streets I walked on today. And yes, the gate in the last one is the same as the gate in this poem: http://awesomedude.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=435

The extra dots in the third one are there because my formatting wouldn't show up on the board. Just imagine that they're blank space, instead.

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Streets Quartet

[southern Security]

To Andover crossed with careful watch

For fences left unlatched

And dogs unchained in full disdain

Of passing gratis glance

At a corner there were two that stood

Grinding gears for tongues

But we were born a louder breed

Barks rolling from our lungs

Hold confidence in swinging hips

In eyes a bluster lit

For locks can claim their causes just

And keep our legs unbit

Though sad to see the chains and gates

For safety comes a cost

Our rolling freedom footfalls worth

All paid in others? loss

[Westerly Uncertainty]

To Vernice strode, beloved, quote

Gypsies, release me this curse

The world weighs down the ones

Caught walking underneath

And shoulders strong can crack along

The ridges left by bricks

Instead of trying to carry me home

Just hold me close beside

With caution calm and palm to palm

We?ll stumble over branches

And break our knees together

So matching casts our consciousness

Can mend these fractured fortunes

Futures welded warmest chance

With coldest calculations

[North-bound Breakspeed]

So Stickney stretched for miles on but only feet for us

Before the train had roared across to carry

Things we?d never get to see to places

We?d never find the time to visit

And left us running next to it

In the opposite direction

And running

Parallel

We could almost

Catch up

But then

We fell back

Again

And

Were

Almost

Moving

Back

Wards...................................It

Took....................................Us

An..................................Entire

Train?s...........................Length

To......................................Go

........................................Just

........................................Two

....................................Blocks

......................With heavy wind

.................Resistance pressing

.........Against our faces, throats

......And arms until it sped, sped

Up and left us to move at our own speed again

Time travel is dangerous for the inexperienced

But we, we tame minutes with meticulous

Methods developed in the most secret of ways

Running next to the trains and raising our voices,

?Let not this slipping second buck me from my well-earned seat,

This saddle lashed across the back of concepts abstract,

Atop a minute molded of pure activity!?

[Eastern Optimism]

At Gibson?s end came small surrenders

In the form of a chain-link fence

And a gate with locks clicked tightly closed

In an intimidating click-clack dance

?This gate! This gate!?

I used to cry

When it towered high above my head,

?Some day I swear I?ll be strong enough

To rip it right off of its stand!?

And now just a well-placed shoulder nudge

Could rob it of its vertical might

But if I tore it down now,

If I let us all out,

I?d be dealing us a terrible slight

Because, unburdened, the ones here now

What could they hope to do?

With no gate to smash,

No cage to shake,

They?d have no goal of breaking through

No, for now, this bastard stands

With his wind-rattled icy glare

For I know now

What I couldn?t have guessed,

That it holds not the ones who leave it there

So grow with a rust-lusty sense of sickness

At the Gate that holds us in

And when you?re strong enough to knock it down

You?ll join in knowing how weak it is.

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-EC

[blue]

[accent=Aussie]That was some walkabout. Fair thinkum.[/accent]

The next time you're in the mood to walk and think, let us know what you turn up.

Looks like he's already found the key.