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hc  Jun 2019
today: in manhatten
hc Jun 2019
today,
in manhatten
i let a guy on drugs cut in front of me
at the checkout
he asked nicely;
i found him endearing

i had never seen someone so earnestly and sweetly
try to contain how strung out he was
and i don't think i'd ever seen someone
so strung out
the cashier looked him up and down,
but he just turned back at me,
and smiled

thanks for being so nice,


you have green eyes

he smiled sweetly,
and turned back

i froze;
i felt sick —
he had seen me
and some people take weeks,
months,
years,
to notice

and he took his change & left
Ralph E Peck  Dec 2011
Manhatten
Ralph E Peck Dec 2011
Masses move like clumps of weeds
Floating narrow outlets, making corners,
Pieces breaking off, sliding, new turns
Some stopping, disappearing, moving on.

The stream divides and crosses
It loops right then left, no seeming end.
The cars all dusty brown and wet and arrogant
Sound bleating cries, jostling to win.

Each one thinking they are the only;
Unconscious to all others, but having to.
Quick moves, sudden turns, ignore to negotiate
Serving a tiny purpose, finding a tiny end.

Above the rush and floating mass
Peering sharply down, closing in
The monoliths and testaments, providing each
One a burrow, and a fence, against escape.
David Noonan Jan 2017
Taking two words to describe yourself
You just smiled "Annie Hall"
I had only seen Manhatten but somehow
Knew, knew how hard i'd fall
As for my turn
Well you just placed a finger on my lips
And then so softly whispered
Sentimental boy

That was then, as for now
Maybe the final credits have rolled
Our picturehouse now in ruins
No more screenings nor stories to be told
Like that derelict Ballroom of Romance
We visited at the edge of town
Summer nights, flagons of cider and your  
Sentimental boy

Recreating it's history
By it's broken down and boarded up wall
Slow dancing in the moonlight
Stopping only to swear we'd heard a call
Rising from the paupers graveyard
Dancing silhouetted in the stars
Ghosts of dead lovers to an old fashioned tune
Sentimental boy

This town now has changed so much
But none so more than we
Yet so often on a warm summers night
By that paupers graveyard you'd still meet me
Humming some half remembered melody
Whilst wishing on the brightest star
Please oh please, won't you just let me be....

                                                      ­               your
                                                sentimental boy
* Rural Ireland in the 1950s/1960s offered little in entertainment or socializing, save for dance halls. These became known as Ballrooms of Romance but were little more than large sheds and most lay unused and derelict by the late 80s/90s

** In modern Ireland a flagon usually refers to a two-litre bottle of cider. Very popular for underage bush  (street) drinking due to its relative low cost per quantity

*** Paupers Graveyards were a field of unmarked and unkept graves of the poor and destitute . Originating from Famine times  (1844-1849) they were common sites all over the country. 150 years later the only signs that remained were often a single cross on a mound of the field
ren  Mar 2017
Manhatten
ren Mar 2017
I'm ready
Hands shaking
Blood racing
Unmistakably steady
Mike Essig May 2015
Wild Dreams Of A New Beginning**

There's a breathless hush on the freeway tonight
Beyond the ledges of concrete
restaurants fall into dreams
with candlelight couples
Lost Alexandria still burns
in a billion lightbulbs
Lives cross lives
idling at stoplights
Beyond the cloverleaf turnoffs
'Souls eat souls in the general emptiness'
A piano concerto comes out a kitchen window
A yogi speaks at Ojai
'It's all taking pace in one mind'
On the lawn among the trees
lovers are listening
for the master to tell them they are one
with the universe
Eyes smell flowers and become them
There's a deathless hush
on the freeway tonight
as a Pacific tidal wave a mile high
sweeps in
Los Angeles breathes its last gas
and sinks into the sea like the Titanic all lights lit
Nine minutes later Willa Cather's Nebraska
sinks with it
The sea comes over in Utah
Mormon tabernacles washed away like barnacles
Coyotes are confounded & swim nowhere
An orchestra onstage in Omaha
keeps on playing Handel's Water Music
Horns fill with water
ans bass players float away on their instruments
clutching them like lovers horizontal
Chicago's Loop becomes a rollercoaster
Skyscrapers filled like water glasses
Great Lakes mixed with Buddhist brine
Great Books watered down in Evanston
Milwaukee beer topped with sea foam
Beau Fleuve of Buffalo suddenly become salt
Manhatten Island swept clean in sixteen seconds
buried masts of Amsterdam arise
as the great wave sweeps on Eastward
to wash away over-age Camembert Europe
manhatta steaming in sea-vines
the washed land awakes again to wilderness
the only sound a vast thrumming of crickets
a cry of seabirds high over
in empty eternity
as the Hudson retakes its thickets
and Indians reclaim their canoes
Arianna Darshani Sep 2015
I hope Osama and his companions
Are enjoying themselves in an
Eternal Hell made just for them

After the bombings of Embasies
In Kenya and Tanzania
We took little notice,
When we should have.

Myself, I traveled to both.
Foolish in retrospect.

He was already a FBI fugitive
Before 9/11
But people in the US
Have a way of distancing
Ourselves from 3rd world incidents.

Whatever reason, it was ******
On a horrific scale
The US will never be the same.

As I mentioned prior,
9/11 did not shock me
With the universal hatred
Of all things having to do with the US
I traveled not saying anything
Nor waving a flag.

There are kits available
To pretend you are Canadian.
When you travel to the 3rd world
To avoid the hatred of the U.S.

We are known internationally, for:
Obesity
Wearing gym shoes
The world's nicest teeth

I anticipated a bomb somewhere
Never thought it would be planes.

However, my opinion does not count
Because I am a nobody, politically.
And there would be nobody
To listen to my advice that
We should have increased our safety level

So, what happened, happened.

God bless all those who died in the attack,
All of the survivors that watched
Manhatten crumble.
Bless the 340 firefighters who died valiantly
Bless all the people who had to chose:

Between burning to death or jumping
Alta Justice Sep 2016
the queen of the weekend wakes
and looks around her chamber
loosesly scattered Target clothes cover the **** carpet floor
she walks to the shower and pours Bath and Body works soap in her hair
dries her face and puts on her CVS brand make up
proudly walks to her wallet and go to Dunkin Donuts for a coffee
she sits and puts her earphones in
hair up in a damp bun
she sips her coffee and watches the flow of people through the glass pane door
at 3 o clock she get up and calls her friends
a plan to meet at Cha Chas in manhatten is aranged for 7pm
she goes home and picks the clothes off the floor
goes to the tiny closet and pulls out a slinky black dress and heels
curls her hair and re applies her mascara and lip stick
she grabs her phone and wallet and heads out the door to go find her king
#king #queen #middleClass #weekend #club #makeup
Chandy  Apr 2020
[Real Lies Pt.4]
Chandy Apr 2020
"This is who I am"
"No doubt about that"
Which mask is that?
Do you buy it in bulk?
Your real self hangs on a thread
Yes, a brain is in possession
It lies in the seabed.
Drowned underneath a facade
Vita is false
Ita what a charade it is!
Proficient in Latin
I jest, I could be from Manhatten
Corner of Houston Street
Around the bend
See how easy it is to cheat?
Reheat your claims
In a busted microcosm
For every face varies
At different angles
Yet I can't recall
It coming in tangles
Backed up against the wall
Today marks your fall
Of one face.
Oh, I know there's a plethora
But as it is spoken in the Torah
Once a liar speaks
Their words fall on deaf ears.

— The End —