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Post by johnyamrus on Sept 16, 2006 20:51:53 GMT -6
Brandi spells her name
with an “i”
and she dots the i
with a circle
and sometimes with a heart.
she drives
a red ’77 Honda
that needs tires
and a brake job.
she’s two years out of high school,
with a kid,
and she lives with her mother
who drinks more often than not.
she could have been married once,
but he left.
now, she drives to work
every day in the Honda,
wearing jeans and sneakers
and a shirt.
and when she gets there,
she changes into
a white tube top,
a skirt and nylons and heels,
and she gives
hand jobs for a living,
in a place
that pretends it’s a gym.
but it doesn’t matter, anyway,
because her name’s not Brandi,
it’s Susan,
and every now and then
her mother gets sober,
and she really does
love that kid.
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Post by anirbas on Sept 16, 2006 22:06:15 GMT -6
Realism...Excellent offering, J. Sad but real...Nir
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Post by johnyamrus on Sept 17, 2006 7:48:03 GMT -6
it's odd, everyone sees it as sad...i see it as finding the humanity in every one of us. i also see hope in it.
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Post by shell on Sept 17, 2006 9:04:10 GMT -6
i think it's sad *grin ... that people are seen and used as commodities, that while it's fine if this is a chosen career path, it generally isn't. i think we all find the de-sacredisation (is that a word?) of everything human/spiritual ... uncomfortable ... i mean if this was a temple priestess thing it would be different ... *bleh* .. just rambling here lol
so much passes between generations. i do see the hope in the last lines of this; mother does love her daughter even if only momentarily able to convey it. And it does only take a moment ...
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Post by johnyamrus on Sept 17, 2006 11:01:04 GMT -6
i see it not as a "career path" for Brandi/Susan...but she's making do. coping. getting by. the way i see it, she'll be okay in due time.
maybe it's just little ol' optimist me.
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Post by shell on Sept 17, 2006 11:15:24 GMT -6
i am so glad you responded, John ... wasn't sure if i had said anything i should regret later ... i think you are so right to point out that people make do. We all do that in many shades and ways ... many die making do ... and i guess the youngsters being commodified, and the desperate souls who condone it, are also making do .. it IS human and it's neither right nor wrong ... it's just, like .. darn it, isn't there more to life? If making do works then why change? Where would be the motivation? I am ancient now and i still do not think beyond the moment *grin
lol ... you don't have to try and answer any of this i am just thinking aloud which shows how much your poem touched me.
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Post by johnyamrus on Oct 24, 2006 12:47:23 GMT -6
hmmmmm....i always saw Brandi as an optimist. maybe not a gee, whiz kind of optimist...but as someone who always feels that things WILL get better...she just has to get thru today.
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Post by soulfir3 on Oct 24, 2006 13:53:15 GMT -6
rivetting piece.. can see myself in it, in a lot of ways.
brilliant job, as always. thank you for sharing
Soul
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Post by vixen on Oct 24, 2006 15:16:37 GMT -6
Wonderfull and thought provoking. It brings to mind a conversation I once had with a friend about free will. He said there was no free will and you just picked the choice that my be the lesser of life's evils. Sobering but true, a job like that is better then a starving baby, but what a choice to have to make. Vixen
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Post by johnyamrus on Oct 24, 2006 16:50:52 GMT -6
what's interesting is that this and "while taking a leak today" are probably my most widely published poems. go figure.
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