I return frequently to this poem based on an encounter with a person of the streets. Since March, due to the pandemic, I have been walking about much less and have not had encounters such as portrayed here. Someday, I’ll return and I will have more encounters with people of the streets and their dreams. In the meantime, I have been seized with an impulse to write a piece in response to this encounter and its poem. I am calling it, “The Bursting Forth,” and will post it when it is complete.<\/p>\n
Here is the poem…again.<\/p>\n
Sporting a Buffalo Bill\u00a0mustache, a goatee, cascading hair
\ntopped by a weathered leather hat of much the same breed,
\none expects a handsome vest and matching chaps with fancy
\nboots to complete the ensemble, not a tattered blue sweatshirt
\nover a frayed red tee, old patched corduroys hugging ground,
\nbroken tennies that weren\u2019t a match; a left leg limping to boot.
\nBut this was not a fashion ramp; it\u2019s a newly surfaced market
\nparking lot and he was asking me, with hand out, and pleading
\neyes, and rasping voice, if I could spare a couple of bucks.<\/p>\n
He was new to the lot and didn\u2019t know what I do when asked.
\nNo, I say, I cannot spare, but I am in the market for dreams.
\nYou have a dream you can tell me, sell me for a couple of bucks?
\nTaking a step back, he says, You serious? Dead serious, I answer.
\nOK, then. I\u2019ll tell you the dream I remember when Jango shook
\nme awake this morning. Jango? Yeah, I slept with her last night
\nand woke her up moaning and groaning something awful, she
\nsaid. That\u2019s her over there in the black tights. Did you tell her?
\nYep. What did she say? She said I better get off all the junk.<\/p>\n
You sure you\u2019re gonna give me?Yes, I interrupt. OK, then.
\nWhat I saw in my dream was the sidewalk, and it was moving
\nlike something was under the sidewalk, long like a snake or
\nsomething, something slithering along, but still under and not
\ncoming out nowhere\u2019s I could see. The sidewalk was moving
\nas far as I could see. It was creepy and I guess it got me scared
\nor something to make me moan and \u00a0groan and waking up Jango
\nand all. That\u2019s all there was. Pretty silly dream, I\u2019d say. You think
\nit\u2019s worth two dollars? Not silly at all. I handed him two dollars.<\/p>\n
He stood there looking at me, standing perfectly still, staring.
\nJango\u2019s man asked, almost whispering, What\u2019s it mean?<\/p>\n
Ah, now that, I charge for. But for free I\u2019ll tell you that\u2019s not
\nthe question. The question is:<\/p>\n
What are you going to do now, now that the snake is moving?<\/p>\n
From\u00a0Dreams From the Street<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I return frequently to this poem based on an encounter with a person of the streets. Since March, due to the pandemic, I have been walking about much less and have not had encounters such as portrayed here. Someday, I’ll return and I will have more encounters with people of the streets and their dreams. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coming-soon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1123,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions\/1123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}