Cigarette Paint

the fewtch

When I am 42

I will have been divorced

and will be working in a salt mine.

At night the roads are black

and the sky is black

and everything is black

so it feels like finally

I have lifted away,

going to my salt mine.

I know where the ditch is

because I've a pocket full

of egg that I sprinkle out

my window with the ash

so the fox and her kits

run along with my wheels,

eating the eggs all the way

to my salt mine.

I won't be able to see

my children because

of the divorce.

Outside of my salt mine

I have a job to do

and nobody thought the storm

was going to be this bad.

"You'll die, you crazy m**********r!"

First I'm going to build you what you need

for to mine salt.

This is why they call it the Milky Way.

We've all seen the Northern Lights,

but not like I see them when I look up

from down my salt mine.

When I am 42

I will have been divorced

and will be working in a salt mine.

There was Christmas morning

in your eyes.

Reviews

[Limitality]

Speechless! "There was Christmas morning
in your eyes."
A powerful ending statement, I quite enjoyed this. Thank you for sharing!

[Erica Ross]

When I am 42
I will have been divorced
and will be working in a salt mine.

This set the tone for the entire poem. I love how inevitable you made everything. Great write!!!

[icelandicblue]

This just has a fatalistic view that's hard to look away from. You've got a life all mapped out but I do hope you see Christmas morning in someone's eyes. That is my wish for you.

[The Twin Arenas]

for the character in the poem, you mean.

[icelandicblue]

Yes...for the character in the poem.

[The Twin Arenas]

thanks for the read, though!

[icelandicblue]

Everyone should experience something like that whether it be a character or a real person. That is a moment to savor for a lifetime.

[The Twin Arenas]

Oh yeah. Absolutely. That's, like, what we're for. That feeling. Absolutely. That's what truth equals.

[Carolann Dowsett]

I like this it has a lot of depth to it.

[Baby Ricochet]

When I was in the salt mines I used dip. It helped keep me focused. I dipped Red Man and Folgers crystals. Virtually all of us did. Red man and Folgers was a secret mix. If you didn't dip it before you got there you started soon after. I stopped when I left. My now X wife wouldn't have put up with that s**t in my mouth for two seconds. I liked this poem. I read it twice and everything. Good job bro.

[The Twin Arenas]

Thanks, man. And thanks for telling me about Folgers crystals. That's something I never, ever would have known.

[Cory Barrett]

Brother... you killed it on this one. I mean really awesome!

[The Twin Arenas]

Thanks, bud.

[Crusty Pizza Stain]

I think you should get married and divorced by 42 as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

wow, i always thought when i was very young that i would live until i was 42...that number i connect with.
ddin't die at 42 but my idol, Elvis, did...
and at 42, i was alive again, in heart....had been divorced finally enough years, i trusted again.

at 64, and three divorces later...i look at my losses and gains...and wonder where and why life turned out as it did.

there is salt in tears, and pain helps us mine that salt.

this poem is very real....and is one of my favorites that i have read here at the cafe.
jacob

[The Twin Arenas]

Was Elvis really your idol? I'm a huge Elvis fan. I think he's one of the most fascinating men of all time.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

yes, he was...and in the 50's when i was a kid, my godparents bought me every new single of his...later in his career i felt he was more glitter than voice...but what range he had in his younger years, before all the drugs and weight...but what a giving person he was.

[The Twin Arenas]

Wow, incredible. How nice of them. Yeah, aside from the Civil War, the Elvis Saga is my favorite American tale. Have you ever read Elvis and the Memphis Mafia? It's an oral history by Alanna Nash. For awhile, this book was my bible. I think it has influence me more than anything I've ever read. I carried everywhere with me. It's the only book I've ever done that with, and frankly, I was beginning to doubt if there was a book like that out there for me. You should really read it, Jacob.
It's so beautiful.
http://www.amazon.ca/Elvis-Memphis-Mafia-Alanna-Nash/dp/1845131282

[The Twin Arenas]

*influenced, I mean.
*carried IT with me, I mean.

[Rene Salinas]

The image of the life tried and tested only to fit in that lovely streotype. Do you dear think that Waconda decided on 42 randomly just because he seems random . That would be a fatal mistake from the part of the reader. 42 is the 6th septenium and at that point indeed the revelations and unfoldings of this sort of life do occur. Five kids, three marriages, ten jobs you name it! The sountrack to our failure that we call life is right there for us to revel upon. Mind you with infinite grace and pleaseantries we don't want anyone to feel bad about it , Do we now? The salt mine becuase is an island, a vestige based ona bittir twisted feeling of a place that comes along.
Smoking too clearly a sign from something that is basically a slow release, probably bordering on alcholism too, life has dissapointed and work is just about the only thing that remains a constant.

Bleak , I wouldnlt mind doing the night shift there though , I imagine the scene must be breathtaking.

Thankyou

[The Twin Arenas]

42 seemed ripe.

[Coyote Poetry]

The poem held a lot of emotions and thoughts in the words. I could feel the distance and the lost of something dearly missed. Thank you for sharing the excellent poetry.
Coyote