Table of
Contents
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GETTING MUGGED
It was 2 AM
I was on the last bus
from Port Authority
to New Brunswick.
As usual,
I sat in the back of the bus.
I was wearing a new leather coat
I had just gotten
for Christmas.
Two guys followed me off
the bus.
One held a knife
to my throat.
He said,
“Take off your coat.”
I took it off
and gave it
to him.
He took off the rag of a coat
he had been wearing
and gave it to me.
End of story!
George Snedeker
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BEGGARS’ OPERA
Dave has been living in the streets
for five years.
He begs every day
to get money for a bite to eat.
He has a crutch that he uses,
just like in The Three Penny Opera,
that he's never heard of.
They didn't assign Brecht
in Dave's high school.
The other day
on the F train,
Dave was telling the story of his accident
and how he just got out of the emergency room
of Beth Israel Hospital,
when a blind man offered to give Dave
a dollar.
Dave said,
"No man, that's ok!"
and quickly made his way out the door
and back into the next subway car,
as the train moved on.
George Snedeker__
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THE GHOST OF JOAN BURROUGHS
Joan Burroughs walks the streets of Greenwich Village.
She rarely goes above 14th Street.
She’s grown tired of the old Time Square hustlers.
Allen Ginsberg remembers seeing her in Mexico.
In a dream,he asked her,
“What’s it like to be dead?”
She did not answer.
Instead,
she asked him about the living.
George Snedeker__
© C.TvM: Flower vase for the VBA volunteers, painting 2008
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REMEMBERING PAUL BLACKBURN
I once heard Paul Blackburn
read some of his poems
on the radio.
Short lines,
pauses;
it’s the rhythm that matters.
Dead at forty-four!
I read some of the poems in his COLLECTED WORKS.
Somehow, it’s not the same.
They lack a voice
and his outrageous humour
in the face of it all.
George Snedeker__
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