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DB Cox
Poet
2/24/2005
00:04:29
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 Subject: the old man
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--- a tribute to Hemingway’s short story “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”
at the edge of town
next to the canal
a single lamp-lit window
tools a hole through the night
in the half-light
of a small, unkempt room
an old man sits alone—
quietly mumbling to himself
every night since his wife died
he has been making
the long walk into town
to the local café
where he sits alone
& drinks brandy until the young
impatient waiter will pour no more
& sends him on his way
now, he weighs arguments
trying to decide if its
worth the physical toll
he’ll have to pay to get there
he knows all to well
how the unrelenting solitude
can sometimes make life
too heavy to bear into another day
only six months ago
his niece had saved his soul
by cutting the rope, as he dangled
like a marionette, from his own rafters—
although he’s weary of the
impolite, young waiter
he still savors the wordless
conversations with the older waiter
whose eyes speak of a shared loneliness—
a common bond of the insignificant
the old man’s eyes move slowly
around the depressing, little room
until they come to rest on a
short finger of unravelling rope
pointing down from the ceiling
as if to say—get up, don’t wait
flee these shadows—go
linger awhile & drink—
in a clean, well-lighted place
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DB
Poet
2/24/2005
00:06:25
| the visit
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a night breeze lifts
the bedroom curtain
& slips in
over the window sill
gently stirring
an empty
rocking chair—
two years, unused
awakened by
the familiar sound,
the old man
sits up, calls her name
then remembers—
for a split-second
brain fingers
grab hold
& refuse to let go
then the fragile
illusion shatters
& settles like ashes
to the floor
leaving only the cadence
of the rocker
to fill the space
between each heartbeat
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korn
Poet
2/24/2005
00:17:27
| RE: the old man
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Message:
aw man, yeah. good stuff.
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ryan
Poet
2/26/2005
16:51:45
| RE: the old man
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Message:
that's one of my fav. short stories...
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