Standing snow – foto Smith
A very brief passage from my memoir soon to be published (probably before summer) by Lady’s City Poetry Press.
I was in a food store in Baltimore in 1974 when a drunk came in and said, “I need a dollar like a dead man needs a coffin.” I gave him the dollar and stole his line. The old women in the store stared at my crotch during this exchange, so that went into the poem too. I was going with Maudlin, and things were touchy because she was in love with the guy who was leaving her so she was using me to buffer her pain and I couldn’t complain because I had to be understanding, so I hid my fears in plain sight in this poem.
Flesh
Like love and money
We weave about the focus
A melody of maybe
In silent forest ritual
Growth duration flesh essence
We stand in the snow
Embrace the cold
And leave no tracks
Though we stumble
Frosted amidst redemption
I need a dollar like a dead man
Needs a coffin
Old women stare at my crotch
Suck sun in summer
Seek sin in fall
— Smith, 1974
Stations of the Lost
A true tale of
armed robbery, stolen cars, outsider art, mutant poetry,
underground publishing, robbing the cradle, and leaving the country
by Smith & Lady
Two snow standing – foto Smith
wow.. love both fotos simplicity is beauty… also like the poem… poems are good that way. we can hide or fear or joy in them…. and make something worthy.