Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Bleak House




there is something lying
dead in the street
not a cat crying
over two bloody feet
there is something gone crazy
there is something amiss - Where? the Great Expectations
gone down as piss?...we have-not a Dickens to tale all the hell
of debtors and meth-ers, souls with only
their scabs left to sell...

flesh eating flesh
no porridge to spare - Oliver's mother long dead
from the drano she wears
her bones non-existent

                the world's gone to hell -
                the addicts are selling
                their flesh at the well...

forgiveness, and savior
both have been missed
in  A Tale of Two Cities
drowning in piss -
Who be OUR author?  this Bleak House
grown cold; the poor growing poorer, cutting roots to the soul...
the crime holds no evidence.  What can we sell?  words have
been eaten, the belly still swells

there is some-thing lying
blood flows in the street
is it a nation that's dying?
face down - with its meek...

bkmackenzie
copyrighted 2011

painting by Joel Isaacson

posted for One Shot Wednesday

i was taken back when i heard that meth addicts actually sell their scabs (that people can get high off of them)...that one addict in the hospital (where my husband was)  had her meth pipe in the bed, and sleeping on it - it burnt a large hole in her thigh...this along with the number of people i see on the streets now...all i could think of was Dickens....bkm

30 comments:

  1. Beautifully written bkm!

    that creeped me out reading about the lady with a hole burnt through her thigh... *mental pictures*

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  2. A yearning for a Dickens for our own time - an aching poem, beautifully done. (Dickens is one of my favorite authors.)

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  3. I have no doubt Dixckens would have much to say about the modern world. Nothing is new under the sun, eh?

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  4. dang....great expectations going down to piss...this is craziness i tell you...scabs, ugh...

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  5. I'm glad -- in only one way -- that others are picking up the icy starving vibe of the times. I wonder if we don't Dickens in our age because no one's reading. Or if society has lost too much of its shame to be roused from its ugliness by harrowing visions of it. Daniel Moynihan once said that when a society fails to rectify its wrongs, it lowers the bar, defining deviancy downward: what was once unacceptable becomes par for the course. It makes the literature of this age more histronic and moot. Or maybe precisely articulated shouts like Dickens's, like your poem, can't go far enough because of the digital flood they're lost in. To trope on "Alien," in cyberspace no one can sufficiently hear you scream. A scary time, Dickens and Poe together in the same sordid streets leading nowhere fast. - Great job. - Brendan

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  6. This is a wonderful piece of work! Yes, Dickens could speak of this time, but you have done it so well. Perhaps we are all lost souls, piss in the street, lying cold.....

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  7. Wow. Powerful powerful stuff. (Do meth addicts really sell their scabs? Ugh...)Yes, we live in a Dickensian world...

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  8. Wow Barbara! Really well written! A bleak reality for sure.

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  9. we live in Meth land. It is vile
    This is excellent but then there isnt a Dickens I dont love

    Thanks and love from the Moon

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  10. oh how horrible. definitely a scene worthy of Bleak House...

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  11. I am blown away by this-- you reach outside a comfort zone here, for sure, taking risks both in theme and language. I especially liked this:

    orgiveness, and savior
    both have been missed
    in A Tale of Two Cities
    drowning in piss -
    Who be OUR author? this Bleak House
    grown cold; the poor growing poorer, cutting roots to the soul...
    the crime holds no evidence. What can we sell? words have
    been eaten, the belly still swells

    Brava, babe. xj

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  12. Dickensian horror evoked in your lines, lines that read, oddly enough, musically because of the cadence and rhyme. They've been rendered visually a la one of the first cover stories ever done on the drug's effects.

    Meth is one of the most ravaging and addictive of drugs. One has only to look at users before and after pictures to get a sense of just what it can do.

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  13. Dickens meets Gothic horror! O such grossly raw images seem to tumble through this poem! Horrifying, repugnant and yet darkly fascinating!

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  14. thank you all for your comments and visits...the subject of reality is at times more unbelievable that what is consider fantasy....blessings to all..bkm

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  15. it certainly is a bleak house, but you tell it's story well. well done.

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  16. What a comment on the society in which we live! This is as stark as it gets Barbara and you have not held back...indeed, there is no holding back. It's so easy to see the glamour and lights of the big city and miss the man or woman lying in doorways and subways...so well written my friend, hope you are well...

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  17. Very powerful writing and in answer, yes.

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  18. the world's gone to hell -
    the addicts are selling
    their flesh at the well...

    Made me think!! Very well captured.. it is sad indeed. Your words are thoughtful Barbie!

    May this chaos come to an end soon!
    Hugs xx

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  19. Wow...everything in the comments above X10! This is an amazing, compelling, thought~provoking piece that speaks volumes about the place and time that we are at within our species. Scary, frightful, and while dripping creativity, all too real. To the writer..encore!

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  20. Wah! I like the way its so cynical and questioning.

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  21. I still cannot fathom why anyone would even try something as henious as that. I mean, where's the benefit? I guess some people are so miserable that any escape is better.

    A strong piece.

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  22. God, this is chilling. Selling their scabs, how completely deeply sad, sad, sad.

    I never think of things like that existing.

    Geez,

    and BKM, I shall make you yur own little sidebar button to post on my blog, sooner than later, I think you are now 4th in line, whoohoo. :)

    xo

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  23. some pretty powerful and emotive imagery here. Grit, and it's good. This passage in particular -

    debtors and meth-ers, souls with only
    their scabs left to sell...

    flesh eating flesh >great stuff

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  24. bleak and barbarous indeed. someone has to tell the ugly truths and not let society turn its back completely. that's why the poets will never become passé...

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  25. fabulous job of weaving the old with the new...avant Dickens..you've also done a great service by illuminating the plague of meth...powerful

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  26. Nice use of allusion to support your imagery.

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  27. a stark reality surpassing even Dickens' tales.

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