MARK TWAIN SUN

sittin' on the hood
playin' crazy eights
sidwalks a-steamin'
under a Mark Twain sun.

white-buckled clogs
over mottled toe nails
a scabbed knee
and legs a-swingin'
Wolf Man Jack spinnin'
on the d-battery radio
puffin' on a cigarette bubblegum
with berry stained fingers.

laundromat kid comes out
with a big red basin
dumpin' water over the crazy eighters.

there they go again
squealin' and chasin'
soaked and laughin'
breathless and runnin'
under a Mark Twain sun.

Reviews

[Unspoken poet]

This is simply awesome, I loved this read, very vivid imagery. Love this write so much

[m.s.early]

This is an absolutely charming moment in eternal youth. It captures such a precious and tender moment.

This reminds me of when I had an office adjacent to an elementary school playground. In the spring I'd open my outside door at lunch time and listen to crowds of children laughing while they played. This poem reminds me of ways I re-live my youth vicariously through the pleasure of sweet children's laughter.

I usually don't like pictures associated with poems. I think they're distracting and tilt the layout of the page that displays them, but this picture is appropriately relative. Although Wolfman Jack was post-color photo technology, the black and white leads me back to the nostalgia of D-powered radios.

This is wonderfully crafted and heart warming. Even though I've never played crazy eights on the hood, I feel like I have as if a memory has been transplanted and I was transported to a moment intimate to the narrator.

Thank you for sharing this.

[Wuji]

I adore how kindred feeling and easy to read this was, great phrasing!

[NeiL ArandA]

Mockingbird i read about Mark Twain life story . He wants to be a child forever . He doesn't like the idea or growing old . Mark Twain Sun ...you captured it . Miss MB :)

[jacob erin-cilberto]

this is a blast from the past...a look at simple life...like that i grew up with...

i feel like a fish out of water these days..i could go for a soaking of the old days...this gave me one.

splash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thank you, Mockingbird.

jacob

[Angi]

Mockingbird, this piece just made me happy. I love the old school feel of these kids actually playing together, in the sun. What a concept! Technology is great, but the ways kids interact has changed drastically. The bubblegum cigarette lines are my absolute favorite. The word pictures this conjured are very nostalgic and I love that. Nice little gem here. Thank you so much for submitting and congratulations for placing silver in this contest. Angi~

[Michael G. Smith]

Love it! Absolutely love it. I could picture the atmosphere like it was an seventies Saturday night. You keno Mark Twain had a son named Two-two? Two-two Twain.

[Shmoke-Sifted Heftlande..]

you could make decent money being a ghost writer for tom waits
I like ginsberg, but his vocal delivery was god awful

[Cole Hayley]

I love this poem and I love the title. Great great work.

[Tate Morgan]

This was absolutely a pleasure and it was all mine