Tuesday Poem: Kitty's Bar, Victoria BC
On Screen One the Ducks are challenging the Black Hawks
on ice, while Pacific Hold-em Poker is dealing a hand
on Screen Two, and Cat Stevens is shadowing the moon
on the music track and Venus Williams is being thrashed
on Screen Three by a young tennis hopeful from Florida.
The girl behind the bar is telling a customer about
a relationship with an Ex who threatened her children
and the new boyfriend who’s afraid of commitment.
Outside, the night is closing down the harbour
as the last seaplane skitters to a pontoon.
I eat my fries in a bubble of silence.
Black Hawks five, Ducks two, the hand to beat
is a straight flush, Williams is forty love down
and the girl behind the bar is still waiting for it.
© Kathleen Jones
This is a - sort of - sonnet! I like fiddling around with contemporary variations and I was in a culture whose poetry uses narrative repetitions instead of rhyme to provide the rhythm. I wrote it in Victoria, British Columbia, eating alone in a bar with five screens broadcasting different programmes, muzak blasting out of the ceiling and some interesting conversations going on around me. It was all surreal.
The Tuesday Poets are an international group who try to share a poem every Tuesday on their own blogs and take it in turns to edit the main website. This week's editor is Australian poet P.S. Cottier, featuring a poem by her fellow country-person Janette Pieloor. Take a look at the Tuesday Poem site and check out what the other Tuesday Poets are posting.
on ice, while Pacific Hold-em Poker is dealing a hand
on Screen Two, and Cat Stevens is shadowing the moon
on the music track and Venus Williams is being thrashed
on Screen Three by a young tennis hopeful from Florida.
The girl behind the bar is telling a customer about
a relationship with an Ex who threatened her children
and the new boyfriend who’s afraid of commitment.
Outside, the night is closing down the harbour
as the last seaplane skitters to a pontoon.
I eat my fries in a bubble of silence.
Black Hawks five, Ducks two, the hand to beat
is a straight flush, Williams is forty love down
and the girl behind the bar is still waiting for it.
© Kathleen Jones
This is a - sort of - sonnet! I like fiddling around with contemporary variations and I was in a culture whose poetry uses narrative repetitions instead of rhyme to provide the rhythm. I wrote it in Victoria, British Columbia, eating alone in a bar with five screens broadcasting different programmes, muzak blasting out of the ceiling and some interesting conversations going on around me. It was all surreal.
I love "I eat my fries in a bubble of silence" -- and the juxtapositions throughout the poem that ply off each other to build a bigger, yet still recognisable-to-us-all picture.
ReplyDelete'Williams is forty love down
ReplyDeleteand the girl behind the bar is still waiting for it.' Great last lines. This poem had a lot of appeal when you sent it as a possible choice for the hub page and I nearly chose it so very glad to see it here.