The Poet

The Poet

Monday, June 29, 2015

Street Corner Watching, written 02/06/1975 by Ron Porter ©2015

Standing on a corner, five minutes in one place,
Watching the city life passing my face;
checking out the rats that are running the race,
Wondering how in hell the keep up this pace.

here comes Hairy hippie with his head in the sky,
A psychedelic gaze lights up his eye;
got twenty-five dollars sitting in his hand,
lookin’ ‘round town trying to find his man.

And the businessman behind the wheel of his fancy mobile
Starts sneering and wondering how it must feel,
wonders how anybody could live such a life
Then drives off to rejoin the none to five strife.

And, the mack eases to the curb in his hog’
he’s down for the action, this man’s a real dog
And, teh ho hits the street to get money quick.
And he pulls away with his partner, both talking slick.

A man and his old lady-hassling ‘cross the street
Cause he spent the grocery money on smack, instead of on meat
She screams he’s a jive-ass, a punk; a disgrace!
And he comes out of his nod and put his fist in her face

there’s the wino with his bottle, lying by the door
A baby’s wail screams from a window on the third floor
And, I’m on the corner, thinking, down below
about why people can’t take life easy and slow.

And my mind keeps saying to me “this is really shitty
but, what can you do man? That’s life in the big city.

The Wine Is Enough (For Now) written 11/24/1975 by Ron Porter ©2015

And, I placed the bottle of wine
on the counter and the dude behind it
asked Is that all you want?
and I thought
Wow it sure would be
nice to get back into school
cos, shit i really want to go into social work
not to save the world
but help maybe just one person
and save some money
and , hell it sure would be nice
to own a Cadillac and
have my poetry published or, most of all
I want a little piece of mind. But, I
also want to be loved and, have a friend
I want to appear on The Tonight Show
someday cause Johnny Carson is pretty cool
So, I answered Uh huh and nodded, and
paid the bill.
Then i walked back to the car.