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    Parker Owens
  • Parker Owens
  • Author
  • 09/05/2017
  • 221 Words
  • 1,623 Views
  • 16 Comments
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

Disasters, Delights and Other Detours - 3. City Seen

Observations made one day while visiting the city. You will spot errors, no doubt. They are mine.

City Seen

A passenger by car one day I rode
and buckled in my place was I detained
when government or chance construction code
decreed a halt, all traffic was detained.

About us rose a shadowed cityscape,
for multistoried castles masked the sky;
I took the opportunity to gape
at life in civic glory passing by.

I thus beheld an eddy in the throng,
a chapel where the suited ones might pray
stood open while the homeless moved along;
but dapper fundamentalists could stay.

Beside the brassy door a hooded man,
perhaps a boy, I really couldn't tell,
sat solitary in his pavement hell,
as only dwellers in the hopeless can.

While I remarked emotions all at play
above the shiny shoes and topcoats long,
still none would stray to help the man in grey;
no Levite stooped for one in garments wrong.

Before I could unbelt, a sainted guy
gave hand to him who begged, a brief escape,
and led the boy into a cafe nigh;
perhaps a hero, though he wore no cape.

I thought to cheer, yet something unexplained
still bothered me while sitting in the road:
I sought the diner window, neck all craned,
to see the promised breakfast then bestowed.

I couldn't, and it seemed a little strange;
was charity afoot or just exchange?

I value your thoughts and comments. Feel free to say what you like. Thanks.
Copyright © 2017 Parker Owens; All Rights Reserved.
  • Like 12
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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Chapter Comments

northie

Trying to weave stories out of what you see going on around you, can be difficult. Particularly if you only see a snatch. It's something I indulge in sometimes while I commute.

 

An intriguing, beguiling poem using a deliberately antiquated form and vocabulary to describe a very modern scene. :)

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dughlas

I like that your first impluse was that someone was offering help but saddened that the second had cause to enter your mind. Oh for a world that need require either thought.

Thank you Parker.

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Parker Owens
2 hours ago, northie said:

Trying to weave stories out of what you see going on around you, can be difficult. Particularly if you only see a snatch. It's something I indulge in sometimes while I commute.

 

An intriguing, beguiling poem using a deliberately antiquated form and vocabulary to describe a very modern scene. :)

 

It was precisely both these things - beguiling, intriguing. I couldn't get this scene out of my head. Just a few moments caught in city traffic can fire the imagination. Thanks for your kind words.

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Parker Owens
2 hours ago, mogwhy said:

the beauty and ugly of the same scene, but which is which?

 

And I still wonder. Funny how some unfinished stories still make you think....

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mogwhy
5 minutes ago, Parker Owens said:

 

And I still wonder. Funny how some unfinished stories still make you think....

some of the best poetry does that. i don't know many poets stuff, but Leonard Nimoy and e.e.cummings stuff is like this to me

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Valkyrie
  • Site Administrator

I liked this a lot.  People watching can be very interesting. What's the true story behind the actions you observe?  Sometimes it's better left unknown.  Great job, Parker. :) 

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Parker Owens
1 hour ago, dughlas said:

I like that your first impluse was that someone was offering help but saddened that the second had cause to enter your mind. Oh for a world that need require either thought.

Thank you Parker.

 

I could not agree with you more. I wanted to see the first ending, and could not. It made me afraid for the second. Or perhaps my imagination is just too vivid. Thanks for reading and responding to this. 

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Parker Owens
59 minutes ago, asamvav111 said:

Scary poem. Well-done. 

Thank you. And the natural extensions of this line of thought are very disturbing.

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Parker Owens
10 minutes ago, Valkyrie said:

I liked this a lot.  People watching can be very interesting. What's the true story behind the actions you observe?  Sometimes it's better left unknown.  Great job, Parker. :) 

 

I am glad you liked this. The true story must remain a mystery to me. I could not see it , nor ensure it turned out the way I would have liked.  But its outcome still bothers me. Thank you for your kind words.

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BDANR

I really like this! I loved how you told this story through poetry. The open-endedness of it had me thinking as well. Thoughtful and intriguing :)!

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Parker Owens
12 hours ago, BDANR said:

I really like this! I loved how you told this story through poetry. The open-endedness of it had me thinking as well. Thoughtful and intriguing :)!

 

Thank you for your comment - stories told in poetry sometimes intimidate, but this one just seemed to emerge. And it still gets to me - what was I really seeing? But then the traffic broke up, and the car moved....

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Headstall

Good question. I think the mental query is typical of the writer in us, to consider the possible scenarios and motives. We become observers who are often skeptical at worst, and curious at best. An intriguing poem. Parker... excellently conveyed.... cheers... Gary.... 

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Parker Owens

Thank you, Gary. I guess it's one of those moments when the facts you see suggest a number of possible stories. Who knows what was really going on? I still wonder. 

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Parker Owens
Just now, Parker Owens said:

Thank you, Gary. I guess it's one of those moments when the facts you see suggest a number of possible stories. Who knows what was really going on? I still wonder. 

 

12 minutes ago, Headstall said:

Good question. I think the mental query is typical of the writer in us, to consider the possible scenarios and motives. We become observers who are often skeptical at worst, and curious at best. An intriguing poem. Parker... excellently conveyed.... cheers... Gary.... 

 

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