A man in a black suit<\/p>\n
skateboards across<\/p>\n
the parking lot<\/p>\n
of the probation office.<\/p>\n
He sports a blue and gold striped tie.<\/p>\n
He’s wearing orange knee pads<\/p>\n
and red, white and blue sweatbands.<\/p>\n
He’s wearing one orange sneaker and one black one.<\/p>\n
He’s carrying a black briefcase in one hand<\/p>\n
and a cigarette in the other.<\/p>\n
He takes a drag off the cigarette.<\/p>\n
His hair is long and streaked with gray.<\/p>\n
He’s older than I am.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It’s raining.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The American flag looks spent.<\/p>\n
The sweatbands have more spirit.<\/p>\n
The weather machine atop the office<\/p>\n
records the salient data of weather.<\/p>\n
No such machine for humanity.<\/p>\n
I am that machine.<\/p>\n
Walt built me into it.<\/p>\n
I am reading Walt Whitman<\/p>\n
in the car.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I’ve got my supplies for the Walt<\/p>\n
writing workshop with me.<\/p>\n
I may spring it on the men<\/p>\n
today.<\/p>\n
I want to be the only person<\/p>\n
in the history of probation<\/p>\n
in America<\/p>\n
who conducts a five-minute<\/p>\n
writing workshop inside<\/p>\n
a probation office.<\/p>\n
We’ll write with<\/p>\n
golf pencils<\/p>\n
on the back of<\/p>\n
William Blake postcards.<\/p>\n
We may sing.<\/p>\n
No one will hear us.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Who will show or not show today?<\/p>\n
Of course, one might show<\/p>\n
but not truly appear.<\/p>\n
I’ve seen that.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Walt wrote:<\/p>\n
I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold.<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I read that line again.<\/p>\n
Everything around me here<\/p>\n
rallies to defeat my announcement.<\/p>\n
I feel I’m losing belief in Walt.<\/p>\n
I’m losing faith<\/p>\n
in my ability to care.<\/p>\n
I hadn’t wavered until now.<\/p>\n
Something in the sweatbands did it.<\/p>\n
It’s not funny anymore.<\/p>\n
It’s not poetry.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The machine in me stops.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Five minutes later.<\/p>\n
I sit in the lobby.<\/p>\n
A man is unraveling next to me.<\/p>\n
Another man strops himself<\/p>\n
yet only becomes duller.<\/p>\n
Sweatband man<\/p>\n
washes the windows<\/p>\n
with toilet paper<\/p>\n
and announces his<\/p>\n
labor is barter<\/p>\n
for court costs<\/p>\n
he will never pay.<\/p>\n
I notice a Rosa Parks<\/p>\n
sticker on his briefcase.<\/p>\n
He encrusted plastic jewels around it.<\/p>\n
They sparkle,<\/p>\n
the windows, too.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sweatband man<\/p>\n
talks to another man,<\/p>\n
the one living under<\/p>\n
the bakery.<\/p>\n
He’s telling him about<\/p>\n
skating with a piece<\/p>\n
of stolen plywood,<\/p>\n
and discoveries<\/p>\n
in his new Bob Dylan (his words) basement:<\/p>\n
three keyboards, three guitars, a drum machine.<\/p>\n
He wants to get a band together,<\/p>\n
a rock and roll band!<\/p>\n
He doesn’t know how<\/p>\n
to play an instrument.<\/p>\n
The other man doesn’t either,<\/p>\n
but he wants to be in the band.<\/p>\n
This is how the Go-Gos started.<\/p>\n
This is how Walt started.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I laugh to myself.<\/p>\n
The machine hums to life.<\/p>\n
I thought rock was dead!<\/p>\n
Not with these men.<\/p>\n
I might even join the band,<\/p>\n
Walt, too!<\/p>\n
We’ll cover Bob Seger<\/p>\n
and the Go Gos,<\/p>\n
but there will be some originals, too.<\/p>\n
(If you found this post enjoyable, thought provoking or enlightening, please consider supporting a writer at work by making a financial contribution to this blog or by purchasing an NSP book.) <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A man in a black suit skateboards across the parking lot of the probation office. He sports a blue and gold striped tie. He’s wearing orange knee pads and red, white and blue sweatbands. He’s wearing one orange sneaker and one black one. He’s carrying a black briefcase in one hand and a cigarette in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3631,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,42],"tags":[6,13,190,88,253,364,256],"class_list":["post-3630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-poetry","tag-matt-love","tag-oregon-coast","tag-oregon-poetry","tag-poetry","tag-probation","tag-probation-poem","tag-walt-whitman","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3632,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630\/revisions\/3632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}