suburban blues

suburban blues

 

 

on Complacent Street

the houses all look  the same

the lawns exact,

swing sets adorn each yard

fences painted alike

 

a row of mailboxes

one from another only by numbers

we live like numbers

personalities are absorbed 

into sameness

 

Gardens of like flowers

porches all with matching lawn furniture

"unique" an archaic word

doorbells all in harmony

blend in symphonic pattern

but the song remains the same as

 

Wait, I hear Led Zeppelin playing

from a basement

they all have basements and attics

painted in mirrored color

look at themselves stuck in a corresponding

world

 

that song? Hear it?

is it sifting out from just one of the houses?

has someone broken the pattern?

identical is just incidental now

 

someone has repainted a mailbox Blue

the rest are...

What it is

 

What it is

What

it

 

is.

 

 

 

erin-cilberto

5/18/2023

Reviews

[willweb]

Your poem creates a scene that seems somewhat idyllic to me. Strange, maybe so, maybe not. Sometimes I wonder if individuality is a blessing or a curse? What would life truly be like if there were no differences to see or compare to? What if...everyone were happy because no one was better or worse off than the other? Hmmm...by the way, that house, the noisy one...is mine.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

then I am knocking on your door, will!
thank you,
j.

[Neville]

I know precisely where this is sir .. it's darn near everywhere .. I don't know why we have or at least so many have arrived there .. I don't know even more why almost everyone seems hell bent on staying. I wonder if being different means that there is a grater chance of being noticed .. something to do with the shoal/herd, safety in numbers thing .. I live as far removed from neighbours as my finances allowed, I have three sets within shouting distance and am happy this way .. just as long as I am allowed to play Led Zep in any room I choose and at what volume .. An enjoyable read if I may say so sir j.

N.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you, Neville...yep, turn it up!
j.

[Ken e Bujold]

Suburbination. everyday sameness of canned soup, stuffed sockeye mounted to the rec room wall. Zep line was fab, since i have never been a fan of those riff ripping, fake bluesmen posers

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thank you for your words, Ken...Don't like Zeppelin?

[Ken e Bujold]

never have. growing up had a very firm rooting in the blues, so i was very aware of the riffs and songs they lifted without really acknowledging.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I understand...especially if you were rooted in the Blues...so many stole or borrowed from what came before...in music, do you think it is inevitable...I have read and taught so much poetry...I wonder just how much I have borrowed or stolen not even realizing it.

[Ken e Bujold]

borrowing is not the crime J. all artists do that, intentionally or subconsciously. my beef with Z was the rather cavalier attitude they had when called on it. Plant on record when responding to a lawsuit about whole lotta love, "we thought it so far in the past, who would care, and success would sort it all out." the past was not even 20 yrs past. what he really meant was who would care if we ripped off a couple of old blues (read black) aritsts? And when they were caught they still acted as if it was just the business. So many of my friends growing up adored Z and to this day think whole lotta love, when the levee breaks where Z originals. At least with Clapton, Winwood, Burden there was an honesty to say we just covering. Music a big part of my life. Grew up around it. Blues Classic country, Hank Sr one of my all time favs, skipped over the 70s arena and am a child of the punks: Costello, Clash, Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers, Buzzcocks, Television ,,, saw them all in their prime.

[Lorry]

When did fitting in become the in thing? The last time I wanted to was when I started little school, until the bell for morning break went and I spent it looking for a way out, but the gates were bolted and I knew then that mum's and dad's lie too and that little school was but a holding pen/jail we would spend the rest of our foreseeable life in.
Didn't we used to dream of being unique? We even feared pronouns, of which there was three, He, She and it!
We didn't get medals for just finishing either, we got told to try harder or give up.
Ahh, happy days. Makes me want to paint my front door in psychedelic colours and fit a doorbell that plays something that will stop people pressing it. Can you get taser doorbells? 😊

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I like your doorbell idea...
j.