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Monday 4 June 2012

The Debt


.


Homeless man and dog, Paris: photo by joelyb, October 2011



 
The great sad eyes
of the very large dog
of the sleeping
homeless guy

rolling from side
to side, vigilant

on the cold
pavement, under
the full

moon, in the un
ending city

night.








Full moon over Pasto, Colombia: photo by Ricardo A. Sarasty V, 4 June 2012

11 comments:

ACravan said...

What can I say? That the poem is beautiful and very effective and I like the way it's paired with the imagery? I do but saying so seems to miss the point. I guess I find the universality telling -- not simply the moon which shines down on everyone but that I thought until I looked at the caption that the photo was taken in the New York City subway. I see now that it's Paris and not necessarily a subway at all. I had to search to find a French word in the frame to tip me off that we were in France and then I saw the word "poses" written on the Kodak Gold film box. I think the poem's title is devastating. Curtis

Hazen said...

Recently I read that when humans pet their dogs (and cats too I hope) it creates endorphin-like substances that make both animals feel good.

Today I came upon a young fawn sleeping in a secluded part of our back yard. No adults around. I was startled. It wasn't, and is still there, awaiting dusk, I suppose, and going off to browse with others.

Mose23 said...

There's echoes here of the previous post, I think. All these spheres and circles: the rolling eyes; the full moon; the city's closed circuit.

The signs of the debt: while I'm not sure if they're universal, they are undoubtedly ubiquitous.

The weight of them hurts.

Susan Kay Anderson said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILuu50-Fwc

Susan Kay Anderson said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMivGwg41V0&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL7026A7E223ADF4FE

vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras) said...

Used to be such scenes were reserved for cities such as New York and Paris and most Greeks never imagined they would be witnessing them under the Acropolis but their creditors will have their bond, won't they?

manik sharma said...

Tom,
no words for the photograph...I would agree with Curtis in saying that the title is devastating..It hits your head like a hammer...How ironic is it that the un ending night unravels in front of a photo studio..Maybe not a bit...As george carlin would say.."Home is an abstract idea..What people need is a roof to live under"..It is a pity that there are many of those built just so you can lock them and leave them for rats and termites...but there are rats on every street...and so are we in every corner of this planet,in debt...

TC said...

Universality, close circuits, animals and endorphins, creditors, nights unraveling at the threshold of a photo studio, the weight that hurts -- each of these thoughts opens the trail to further thought... and obviously we're not out of these woods yet.

Susan's links, the night forest and the starved trees, walking in it. Or were those people.

TC said...

Here's Susan's link done up:

Mike Johnson: If the world hadn't gone insane

& cf.
Bureau of the Abandoned

Robb said...

Beautiful, Tom.

Saw a full moon in Harlem on Sunday evening - a day after seeing a rainbow in Harlem. Wonders in the sky over the elevated 1 train.

TC said...

Hey Robb,

Under the light of that same moon a woman with one tooth and a droopy eye who sells homeless papers asked me for a smoke and when I said You know I don't, said That's ok I've got one saved anyway but you can't have it, and beside why is it so damn COLD up here, ahmo git my butt back down Oakland, be WARM down there.

I said that's probably just an illusion.

Say what she said, and caught the last 51B.