Poetry Sample
Poetry is primarily a spoken medium, so please click on the icon above to hear Ron read "1919."
1919
© R. L. Herron
Sunrise to sunset, six days a week,
for a buck-fifty and three squares a day.
Sunday's were tough,
with nowhere to go 'cept church,
to moan o'er the blokes that week dead,
and no squares to count on,
'cept those you bought yourself.
That's if you were lucky enough
to have spending cash for Sunday meals,
after a week of smokes, tent-side craps
and wagering on whether Dewey'd
sober long enough to do a lick.
And, maybe...maybe
sending a ration home to family,
if you remembered, after a Saturday night
spent with a bath, a shave and,
if the bones rolled well, a pint and a red woman,
paid to make you forget you were a workin' man;
or to remember,
don't rightly know which.
* * *
1919 Is also featured in the new anthology of Michigan's Best Emerging Poets, by Z Publishing.
* * *
You can view another of Herron's poems on the online literary journal Slow Trains
© R. L. Herron
Sunrise to sunset, six days a week,
for a buck-fifty and three squares a day.
Sunday's were tough,
with nowhere to go 'cept church,
to moan o'er the blokes that week dead,
and no squares to count on,
'cept those you bought yourself.
That's if you were lucky enough
to have spending cash for Sunday meals,
after a week of smokes, tent-side craps
and wagering on whether Dewey'd
sober long enough to do a lick.
And, maybe...maybe
sending a ration home to family,
if you remembered, after a Saturday night
spent with a bath, a shave and,
if the bones rolled well, a pint and a red woman,
paid to make you forget you were a workin' man;
or to remember,
don't rightly know which.
* * *
1919 Is also featured in the new anthology of Michigan's Best Emerging Poets, by Z Publishing.
* * *
You can view another of Herron's poems on the online literary journal Slow Trains