| Selby Had Kicked...
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nose
| Selby had kicked, | 1 |
twelve times in his life, | 2 |
and had thought that the street | 3 |
was a safer place to live | 4 |
than the world that loomed above it. | 5 |
Took a shoe ride | 6 |
down to a level | 7 |
he felt he would be more accustomed to. | 8 |
That wouldn't ride him so hard. | 9 |
That would give him the space to breathe | 10 |
in the same way | 11 |
that he assumed others did. | 12 |
Sore lip kisses | 13 |
and dirt lined suits, | 14 |
so encrusted | 15 |
as to stand upright on their own. | 16 |
Not badges. | 17 |
Not a costume. | 18 |
Not knowing what this madness was that | 19 |
made him go through such a thing, | 20 |
Selby continued... | 21 |
| |
Selby had kicked, | 22 |
thirteen times in his life | 23 |
and as each kick sunk deeper into his rib cage, | 24 |
a little less air would come out. | 25 |
He had seen how low you could go | 26 |
and had felt how high, | 27 |
but when finding himself somewhere in between, | 28 |
he realised that he had no where left to hide. | 29 |
Put on a tie and used it | 30 |
to drag himself behind a desk. | 31 |
To noose his neck to the keyboard. | 32 |
To strangle a smile out of his face. | 33 |
He put the appropriate sized paper in the appropriate hole. | 34 |
Made copies of letters from no one to nowhere. | 35 |
And saw a computer screen smile at him as his head fell with a crash. | 36 |
When the mailboy asked him if he was alright, | 37 |
Selby stabbed him in the mouth | 38 |
with a red pen. | 39 |
| |
Selby had kicked, | 40 |
fourteen times in his life | 41 |
and as he struggled to remember this, | 42 |
he touched god, | 43 |
broke his hip, | 44 |
laughed at a beggar | 45 |
and soiled himself. | 46 |
Life moved quick, | 47 |
like a bride at a shotgun wedding, | 48 |
fully loaded and pointed at Selbys' back. | 49 |
Too much wine. | 50 |
Too much cake. | 51 |
Too much to expect the wife to pop her clogs | 52 |
onthe wedding night. | 53 |
Selby snorted, | 54 |
like a horse in heat, | 55 |
took the lift | 56 |
from the balcony, | 57 |
steep ride, head first | 58 |
into an ever expanding flower, | 59 |
that he soon realised was his blood | 60 |
and the somewhat sparse interior | 61 |
of his skull. | 62 |
They scooped him up, | 63 |
dribbled him onto a bed | 64 |
and filled his arm with more happiness | 65 |
than "to have and to hold" | 66 |
could imagine. | 67 |
| |
Selby had kicked | 68 |
fifteen times in his life | 69 |
and as he stood in the framework | 70 |
of a half opened door, | 71 |
he caught himself living a lie. | 72 |
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7 Aug 03 |
Rated 7.1 (7.4) by 9 users.
Active (9): 1, 3, 5, 8
Inactive (14): 2, 3, 5, 5, 6, 8, 8, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
(define the words in this poem)
(12 more poems by this author)
(7 users consider this poem a favorite)
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Comments:
This is the second time i've posted this and the second time it's going to slip through without comment... anyone?
— unknown
I don't get the "had kicked". Why not just "kicked"? Looks like the author is embellishing on non-fiction but the point is lost. Is Selby the bum being described or a good character who is not really so good? The imagery is good but the cohesiveness is weak (except for Selby kicked .
— boothben
Selby is... Selby. He was the bum and the good character who was not so good. He was human so he was all of that. Duly noted on the 'had kicked' though. Just undecided. Gonna have to think on that one. Thanks for the comment boothben.
<--- nose
— unknown
MORE COMMENTS! WHat is wrong with this particular one that it is cursed to continually slip off the radar!! YAAARRGGHH!!
— nose
it must be good, i wantto get soemthing from it, but im not connecting to it. i cant help thinking about "digby goes down", a bad movie, which is a disservice to your poem.
i like 13-14, 31-32, 50-51.
59-62 sounds like a reference to DMT.
i like the details. just not sure what im looking at.
— gnormal
whoa. i just needed to sit down shut up and read it was all. now its twice as good. i really like this.
now i want to hear more about him.
took a shoe ride! thats nice. is it a british expression or yours?
most disappointing is the end. half opened door is is life half over? last line is cliche. too cliche for you.
i assume whats being kicked is a substance addiction, but i wish that the kick was a aggressive swing at life, a frustrated outsider trying vigorously in numbered concentrated efforts to get his rightful footing. in this sense kicking would be NOT giving up.
i think you should expand the story. i want to hear about 1-12. i also want a happy ending.
i prefer selby kicked. the had makes it harder for the reader to care about a story that is obviously over. the had makes it sound too casual. selby kicked grabs better.
i dont know what pop her clogs means, but it has a nice sound.
seriously, i hope for both a prequel and sequal.
8.
— gnormal
i also like how, though it doesnt apparently rhyme, it seems to. poetic sleight of hand.
— gnormal
Hey nose, I read this one over and over and just couldn't grasp it until now...and now that I have, I really like it. I think I have to go against everyone else...'selby had kicked' feels right to me. Good work. Keep writing.
— unknown
Thanks for the constructive comments people. This is what i needed with this. Still can't decide on the 'had kicked' or just 'kicked' though. Leaning towards 'Selby kicked' thanks to the persuasive comments of the esteemed gnormal. 'A shoe ride' is just aterm i use(as far as i know) though i am originally from Britatin(How did you know! lol) To 'pop ones clogs' is to 'kick the bucket', 'cark it' or 'to die' in general. And to kick something is entirely open to interpretation. I think of it in a very broad sense and yes, Selby kicking can be seen as him kicking against something. Selby was a real person(Though the names have been changed to protect the guilty) and that's where the story ends. There's no sequel, as there's no more Selby. Though, there could be maaaaany prequels if i took the time to write everything he did. Hmmm, maybe. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
— unknown
I said "GODDAMN!" You have really done it here. BRAVO! A ten if ever I've seen one on here!
— aforbing
i really like that, and it's Selby had kicked
— unknown
Love the last stanza.
Really wraps it up well.
— unknown
This is the third time I've read it and each time I almost comment and then can't think of enough to say. Unique, interesting, splatteringly creative. I love lines 63-67, just because they were so unexpected.
— Isabelle5
v.good
— Ullysses
Amazing. I think i'll stick this one on the fridge. Or possibly in it.
— Jong
Irrefutable proof that there is poetry of great quality on this site. Good work.
— unknown
I've tried heroin. It wasn't that bad.
— ersaph
That's one of the stupidest most idiotic naive fucking comments i've ever heard ersaph. You're a twat.
— unknown
Have you actually done heroin though? It's great
— unknown
Great until you take that last thoughtless fucking hit though, huh? Yeah... great. Tell that to the people who love you while watching you do it. Idiot.
— unknown
Very good, I love it, and there's not a word I would change in it. Congratulations nose.
— wraze
i personally like the pluperfect tense.... Had kicked makes it quite clear that the 12, 13, 14, 15 times aren't the last.
— omega
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