'Lumbar' Yard

As if there were safety in stupidity alone. - Thoreau

behind the apartment house with the loud people

not far from the church with the crooked steeple

right near the little bridge that spans the river

someone left a discarded mattress box spring on its bank

the one they once waited with baited breath for the store to deliver

as if no one knows

as if no one cares

as if it will magically disappear

along with the empty bottles of beer

not to mention the bedbugs and their seven year itches

i pray that the river will never share any of its plethora of blessings

with those dirty sons of b*****s

Author's Note

"The savage lives simply through ignorance and idleness or laziness, but the philosopher lives simply through wisdom." - Thoreau

Reviews

[Samuel Dickens]

I've just read four of your poems. Until this one, I couldn't figure out what to say, likely because I'm too dumb and/or too old to grasp the meaning. (my searches for clear meaning in poems are often futile) I like the rhymes in this--people, steeple, river, deliver. I also like how the old mattress is seen, and how it was once loved, but now it and it's tawdry past are reviled. Your recent music choices are foreign to me, as I'm still stuck at Woodstock.

[Lara]

This brings a sharp, poignant edge, Pete, to the phrase "you made your bed. you lie in it" ... (reap what you sow)

I notice the song-style rhymes and assonance - particularly in the opening lines, and how they really enhance the coiling bed spring image. Then follows a structure gone a little out of shape, reflecting still, the state of a bed gone awry as refuse. I admire that attention to your craft in this one, Pete.
A pleasure to read.