Old Buddy

another going home piece

“Hey old buddy how’ve you been? Haven’t seen you around here this place much,
since the place changed hands and now some Chink works the bar
can you believe it? Never thought I’d see the damned day.
The auld woman treating you well? I see she let you out for an evening-
Well just look at that sorry excuse of a pitcher; they should have traded him last season!
I can’t believe the money that gets spent on lousy players.

Damn, Bill, it sure is quiet around here without you and can you believe
Sarah come home the other day with some fundraising request from church
to bail out some Spicks who lost their home in a fire down the street!
You know what I always say, ‘God helps those that help themselves’ it’s in the Holy Book!
Read it people, don’t come to my country expecting no handouts if you’re too
f*****g lazy to get a real job and learn our language’.

Can you believe the entitlement of these people?
Taking food out of my kids’ mouths so they can sit on their fat asses collecting welfare
and buying pick-up trucks while the rest of us have to earn our goddamned keep.
Stealing jobs right out from under decent folks, why it ain’t never been my fault
they never learned how to make it in the real world. Sarah says,
‘Dear, they’re trying to raise five children and a baby in that little place’

I say, ‘Don’t be havin’ no children y’all can’t afford to feed.
Lookit us, we ain’t never took handouts from nobody, and we done just fine’.
These f*****g bleeding heart liberals saying, ‘the system is broken,
people never get a chance’, well- just how much chance does a person like that
really deserve anyway? They don’t belong here, and I sure as hell
don’t want them stinking up our schools with their crime.

I can’t be the world’s keeper you know, I got my own s**t to deal with
So how has it been with you, Bill, really?
Hell, man, you didn’t tell me you got shitcanned too- when?
Four months ago? And you and Evvie got the little ones to take care of, too, right?
Well that just sucks, really really sucks. System must be broke when a good
hard-workin’ man like you can’t keep his job nowadays.

Man you really got screwed over big time there!
They want you to go back to school? What the hell for- we always did alright
without no fancy book-learning. What good is school going to do you, why lookit
Ol’ Dale with his fancy degree and workin’ night shift down at the grocery,
what good did school ever do him? No man you were right to turn it down last year.
So how long can you hold out collectin’ unenployment?

Did you see that play? I can’t believe they gave up that run! Trade that b*****d in already!







 

Reviews

[bob, small b. aka invs]

i know a lot of these people. you give a pretty accurate representation of them here. if i weren't a bleeding heart liberal myself, i might sound a lot like them. when you're working hard and just scraping by, it's hard to see others getting help when you're not getting any. so i'm sympathetic up to a point. that point would be the bigotry that seems to go along with this kind of thinking. anyway, i think you did a good job of getting into the character. one small criticism, the word 'entitlement' is a bit upscale in language for this guy. i doubt that would be in his vocabulary. a simpler word would work better in my opinion.

good work.

[gombeggar]

nice lament ;)

[ice]

I live in the Pennsylvania highlands..land of the redneck, and language like this...sometimes even worse..is pretty common....My son works in a conveinece store.. a guy came in for gas, and complained about the high price..told my son it was the (n word) in Washingtons fault. My son (who is 20) wrote down everything the guy said..he had never heard anything like that, and was furious, and shocked..

I am going to let him read this.

Ice

[Jess]

Ah, the banter of home....

[THERISA]

I know a lot of people, who would fit comfortably with the banter of your dialogue, in the poem. In my past, these type of men, would tackle the Gay/Lesbian communities, with their crude attempt at humour. Along with the various ethnic group, which was the flavour of the month, for whipping. Sadly, i don't see any brightness at the end of this tunnel. Just more hatred and bigotry. Thank you, for showing a side of life, which we normally, try to avoid.

[Through the Gateway]

And stupidity marches merrily on.

I think we all, sadly, have been a party to this kind of rant. Whether in a bar, or even listening to some of the people we once knew back home. It is both depressing and frustrating to listen to, and yet when asked to help themselves improve...you become the enemy.

[Georgia Gypsy]

The person that talks throughout your poem sounds like the father of my DWB. Very gritty and definatley shows the narrow mindedness of how people still think (on second thought, this could be my father talking except you left out a few other colorful races).

great job!