Disconnect

[CdnReader]

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Disconnect

I saw a man on the sidewalk
on a cold London day,
bundled in a worn coat and hat,
huddled under a blanket
asking for spare change.

On the next block,
a woman with a kerchief over her hair,
deeply etched lines on her very young face,
a small child tucked close to her shoulder
-- the little one seemed to be asleep --
next to them a misshapen cardboard
Starbucks coffee cup in holiday colours,
a few stray coins scattered
in the bottom.

The woman says nothing.
Her empty grey eyes watch lifelessly
as the crowd passes by.
I have seen her here before.

And the Oxford Street shoppers stride by
in their Armani jackets and
their Ralph Lauren trousers
and their Manolo Blahnik stilettos.
Leather Gucci handbags with straps
formed of linked golden rings
dangle casually from one shoulder,
four or five shopping bags
overflowing with colour and shine and tinsel
looped over the other arm.
They laugh and chatter gaily
with their well-dressed companions.

A Christian Dior fragrance
-- Pure Poison, if I'm not mistaken --
drifts lazily in their wake.


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cdn/20dec07
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[PrinceMyshkin]

I love the way you shift in the third stanza into the present tense, as you move (and move us) from merely observing the scene to being an inescapable part of it, and the choice of "Pure Poison" is devastating. (There really is such a perfume?!)

Thanks!

[AuntShecky]

Evidently Pure Poison is indeed a brand name for fragrance.
You know, Stephen King, the extremely popular author of horror novels, gets heat for inserting so many brandnames and consumer items in his works, the literary equivalent of
"product placement" in movies. His defense is that it brings a modicom of recognizable reality to a genre that is by its very nature a bit implausible (pace, Aristotle) and
fantastic. By the bye, the critical consensus is that Mr. King
is a "schlockmeister," however to my way of thinking, the jury is still out. I used to work with hs dropouts where we
attempted to help them acquire literacy skills. At that time I used to see these youths rapt by a paperback Stephen King novel. So if King can inspire these so-called
underachievers to start reading, his works have some value. (Not that I'm going to rush out and buy S. King novels, it's not my cup o' tea, but I do think "The Stand" was his best.)
And -- sorry for the digression, CDreader -- your piece works because it does indeed contain images that the reader can see, touch, smell. I liked the title a lot: you didn't go with "DisconnectION" but with "disconnect," so that it could be taken as a verb, and also part of the current phrase that aptly describes a thinking person's alienation from the mainstream: a "cognitive disconnect."And you never can go wrong contrasting the Poor vs. the rich. (Shameless promotion of "Warm Socks and a Prayer.")

Hope to see more interesting pieces from CdnReader!

[firefangled]

Great ending! Great beginning and middle too. :)

[PrinceMyshkin]

Great ending! Great beginning and middle too. :)

That pretty well covers it, I think! (Implicitly you liked the punctuation as well, as did I.)

[CdnReader]

Thanks very much, Prince, AuntShecky, and Firefangled. Greatly appreciated. :)

P.S. Jer, yes indeed.... There most assuredly is such a perfume!

[asthaoo]

I really like this, especially the punctuation. It's really straightforward, yet somehow poetic and moving.
love it.

[michael336]

The juxtaposition of the homeless with the wealthy was great.
Good choice in using "Pure Poison." Very symbolic...intentionally?

[LadyW]

Wow fantastic, really puts across a good message.
And yes, excellent use of the "Purse Poison" too.
I love how you have used the brand names (starbucks etc) because readers are fimiliar with these, thus they can really think about this poem and its meaning.

[CdnReader]

Thanks very much for your comments, asthaoo and LadyW. Michael, yes, "Pure Poison" was a very deliberate choice. I browsed the expensive perfume sites for awhile looking for the brand-name that worked best with the message. :)