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Poem
I've Been Walking The Streets
I've Been Walking the Streets is one of a series of "walking" pieces I've composed while literally doing that activity -- in this case in the years when, seeking life after job, I would work 10-6, sleep a couple of hours, then go out and walk all night through the streets of the city. I would stop by the roadside or in coffeeshops to scribble in my notebook. Eventually, when the buses began running again in the early morning, I would hop one and head home for a few hours' more sleep before beginning the whole thing again. I wrote poem after poem and song after song - It was an intensely creative period for me. However, I think between being inside for the job and sleeping for the early part of the evening, I didn't see the sun for almost a year. Did I mention I was working in comic books at the time?
I've Been Walking The Streets
I've been walking the streets in the dead of the night like a
Black corvette like a
Well-oiled spring
Waiting for someone to give me a cause
To unwind
My fingers are curled in a vicious sneer like the
Grin of a serpent like
Jaws of steel
Waiting for reason to act for a cause
To unwind
Like a venomous poem that scrawls off the page
The words of its writing blackened with rage
Like a summons that goes beyond death beyond grave
Like a knife
I've been walking the streets in the dead of the night like a
Black corvette like a
Well-oiled spring
Waiting for someone to give me a cause
To unwind
And the people that watch as I pass in the night
Are ribbons of moonlight and shadowy light
They watch as I pass but they can't or they won't lend a hand
I've been thinking sometimes of the perilous few
Who cruise in the night in the dead of the moon
Who slips through the streets with no thought but to stay
Far from home
In the chill of the night with no company there
But the sound of my footsteps, the wind in my hair
In the chill of the night as I search for a cause
To unwind
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