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Jerrybaldy
12-14-2011, 08:15 PM
White goods float on brown water,
boats come home to roost.
Cars are cast on a maiden voyage.

On a new stretch of beach
a bald man, coconut buttered fat,
overlapping speedos,
in hope of a finer day.

He stands unafraid,
of what waited,
this day
to take him away.

the facade
12-14-2011, 08:17 PM
I sincerely love this poem.

MystyrMystyry
12-14-2011, 08:23 PM
Not bad JB - what is meant by by overlapping speedos? You don't mean overclocking as in a speedometer?

Anyway, enjoyable nonetheless

Jerrybaldy
12-14-2011, 08:33 PM
Thanks facade
MM I mean a gut overlapping a pair of speedos.

blank|verse
12-14-2011, 09:04 PM
A rather cryptic, ominous poem, Jerry. Do we detect the poet himself in 'the bald man'? Lovely image, if so; reminds me of the 'Moneysupermarket' advert with the guy with the inflatable crocodile.

Jerrybaldy
12-15-2011, 04:30 AM
Thanks B|V. I always find it difficult to tell how cryptic I am being. No I am not the bald man, he is a man I watched in a documentary recently, stood, not running, on a new bit of beach, fated to be in the wrong place on the 'wrongest' of days........

hillwalker
12-15-2011, 08:08 AM
I'm guessing some misplaced tourist hoping to chance a paddle once the tsunami's calmed down a bit... it's also a great metaphor for the male menopause, lost youth, bewilderment, etc.. But that's a different day.

H

Hawkman
12-15-2011, 08:24 AM
Hi Jerry, I think this is a very good poem and I got the tsunami reference right off. However, you don't need that comma after fat, it confuses the flow of the line.

Best, H

blank|verse
12-15-2011, 08:21 PM
Oh yeah, I get it! It was a bit late when I read it first time! Paul Muldoon has a similar poem - 'At the Sign of the Black Horse, September 1999' from Moy Sand and Gravel, apparently a re-write of Yeats's 'A Prayer for My Daughter', although at 18 pages, Muldoon's is a bit longer! - so you're writing in a fine tradition, Jerry.

Claim it was intentional and I won't tell...