Poems of Life
A local poet shares his writings based on real life.
Lost Soul
August 19th, 2010 at Thu, 19th, 2010 at 8:30 pm by Ed CorriganLost Soul
Another lost soul
on the street today
planted lotus like
on the sidewalk next
to the traffic light
green…yellow…slowdown…
There she is centered
on the walk as if to say
“Here I am and here I’ll stay.”
She has a cigarette, a coke
a profile slightly hunched
or scrunched, hard to say.
Contemplating all that
there is to see on this
urbanal street full of cars
busses and trucks blowing
exhaust fumes in her face while
she’s blowing cigarette smoke
randomly into space as if
to create a personal cloud.
Traffic light yellow…red…stop…
I look over
through the tinted glass
in my cool and air
conditioned space while
taking in her face.
She looks down
and then up at my
face, which is now
looking down – a near miss.
Her hair is bedraggled.
Her mask is jagged, rough
around the edges with
no discernable expression
whatsoever. I think “Hmmm…”
then “Hmmm” some more…
Now smile a wave while
she smiles a wave back.
Her eyes shine for just
a second then revert to
dark pool moon craters –
one hundred thousand miles
away in a nanosecond.
Moving from the traffic
light red…green…go…
Driving on down the road,
heading away or towards?
I cannot say or be sure.
But mostly just leaving
her behind and thinking
about what happens next.
Copyright © Ed Corrigan 2010
All Rights Reserved
Ed Corrigan I am Ed Corrigan and live happily in Maple Valley with my wife, Nona. We have two terrific sons - Joe and Tim - and three beautiful daughters - Kate, Sally and Sarah - and one cat named Omega. I've been writing poetry, on and off, since 16 years of age. Early poetic influences were Shakespeare and e. e. cummins. A more recent influence is Walt Whitman whose "Leaves of Grass" is the most amazing thing that I've ever read. Music has been very important in my writing and in life. I am not a musician but early on the singer/song writers Paul Simon, Smokey Robinson and Bob Dylan had a big impact on my poems. More recently, I've been affected by Miles Davis, Green Day, Alanis Morissette, Linkin Park and others. I love to write and its something that I need to do. A poet once said that a poem is not complete until its read or heard by another. Thank you for visiting my blog.
More articles by Ed Corrigan >
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