Today will probably be a multiple entry day, but for now here's a poem entry. You can listen to it too...
Thayer Street the line between Sun and Shadow
I
I'm Standing on a street corner
I look around & think: Thayer street is the East side
which is Providence
which is New England
which is America
So I walk past the sole proprietor's shops
bakeries
Restaurants- noxious in the worst possible way -
����to an empty stomach,
Thayer street is walking awake
pedestrian impossibilities
a delivery truck blocking half the road
stress
gridlock
& parallel park,
but it's also tiny stores, small stores, stores owned by people
it's nick knack, & window shop - dollar fifty bottomless cup
friends on every other block!
Thayer is RISD, RIC, Ivy Brown,
Spikes Junkyard Dog, where if you eat 6 dogs in an hour or so, you get a
T-shirt
12 & they'll call the hospital for free
It's College hill book store open late as any bar & I'd rather get drunk on
words any day
if the words fail you, there's Spirituous Fermenti where you can pick up the
material
to do your best Kerouac impersonation,
or plagiarize Bukowski for that matter...
There's Thayer Rats, Gothic Impostures
Real angst ridden youth smellin of contempt for Daylight College students,
coffee servers, Coppo in the Cafe, Chrissy, Christina, Christian, Christ
Almighty! there's Polaski, Powers, Prout
all walks all races
blendin with (Hraaaaaaa) Bikers
(Cha Ching) Bicycles
GQ models Incarnate & (Shut-ta-fuk-UP! Man Look at her, Hey Baby you wanna
meet my girlfriend?)
The Avon Cinema playin movies you'd never see in a showplace
Skateboard shops, Army Surplus, Coffee shops, restaurants, Apro pro, Estas,
Estas Too, an Anime Shop
(Bee Bop Bee Bop Bee Bop) In Your Ear, Mobies Music & so what if Tom's
Tracks is rude,
they're cheap
It's a flower boutique smellin of Spring in December
(The Hare Hare - Hare Hare Christna) over noon on Saturday Waterman Corner
mantras chanting over the Sexy Salsa Muzack playing behind Tex Mex Cuisine
you can almost taste the spice - Smell the ribs smokin the Air!
Cajun life pouring out of night neon light of 1am liquid lounge
the Light curried glare of 2am Euro trash Viva! - black turtle necks wall to
wall - you'd think a Beat convention poured into town
& me walkin by my reflection in windowed street light,
cigarettes & gum on concrete
stepping past afternoon street Guitars playin for their cases
Guitars! playin the same songs over & over & over
an old blues horn man makin me wanna moan
"Blow man,
Blow man,
Blow!"
stead I drop a dollar, grin along my way, stay with the street life,
the street life
it's a sweet life when you can walk down Thayer with no worries at all.
II
Thayer Street is walking past parked cars
Stopping
brushing cat hair from oil painted
art school jeans
letting Doc Martins walk past Starbucks
past the bus tunnels - the gaping mouths - black moaning - guttural echoes
tradeoff's of public transit
diesel fumes & diesel noise pouring & draining
in & out of that street
follow that tunnel all the way & you'll end up at the canal
Thayer is in the painted jeans
a 5 foot 4 white button down shirt & black spiked collared frame - frozen -
split second - with a tunnel on either side.
Walking towards Dunkin Doughnuts where they never get appreciated for the work- & show it
past fishbowl Starbucks, Au Bon Pain in the Gap,
Thayer is wearing scars - two on the right arm - three on the left - all
from the stress - all from the pain - all from when she couldn't do anything
else about it,
not showing her mother until months after they heal
wearing them now, ridged reminders,
calling them badges would seem too proud.
Thayer is clearing the tunnels, crossing the street, past the Brown
Bookstore
searching out Iced Coffee & Menthols - feeling March breeze, the warm touch
of Sun
Watching out for punks, daylight rapists, the socialist party, bums,
vagrants, low lifes & that damn evangelist
wondering where all the old hippies are this week
Seeing all the groups hanging around each other, noticing all the groups
still keep to themselves
Seeing a tall blonde guy walking towards her,
two more a half step behind
Noticing a baseball hat, his football jersey,
Thinking he'd be cute if his neck weren't so thick
Walking closer & closer until it's 20 feet - 10 feet - 5
Seeing him breath deep & then sneer
2 feet - sneer - head turn - mouth part - tongue to palette sneer
& then feeling his spit
drip down her face.
III
Thayer is the East Side which is Providence which is New England which is
big business beating out the small
Big people showing the small exactly what they think of them
Siam square is now a hole in the ground
Another half block they knocked down for another national chain
CVS & Store 24 filling the vacant store fronts
McDonalds trying to move in year after year
It's 1 plus 2 equaling 3 - no more - no less
& I'm back on that corner
imagining the guy who spat in my girlfriends face is sitting in Starbucks
right now
Helping pasteurize this city
Walmarting the world.
