Login
|
Join PoetrySoup
Home
Submit Poems
Login
Sign Up
Member Home
My Poems
My Quotes
My Profile & Settings
My Inboxes
My Outboxes
Soup Mail
Contest Results/Status
Contests
Poems
Poets
Famous Poems
Famous Poets
Dictionary
Types of Poems
Quotes
Short Stories
Articles
Forum
Blogs
Poem of the Day
New Poems
Resources
Syllable Counter
Anthology
Grammar Check
Greeting Card Maker
Classifieds
Member Area
Member Home
My Profile and Settings
My Poems
My Quotes
My Short Stories
My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder
Soup Social
Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us
Member Poems
Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Random
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread
Member Poets
Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest
Famous Poems
Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100
Famous Poets
Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War
Poetry Resources
Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Email Poem
Your IP Address: 3.144.160.219
Your Email Address:
Required
Email Address Not Valid.
To Email Address:
Email Address Not Valid.
Required
Subject
Required
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
The 42 Inch Hallway We’re stepping along the musty hallway now. I am taking us on a fast-moving memory ride; A mind-bending groovy slide to 1965, When Dylan music was seeping loudly like a germ, Down the green-carpeted hallway of my youth, from Within the record-filled yellow room of my older brother, Keeper of a hundred LP records with covers picturing gods. “Turn that music down!” His mother is hollering down the hallway. “Can’t you play some Mario Lanza music instead?” Now we hear the soothing voice of Vin Scully broadcasting, Another Dodger game on KFI with Koufax on the mound; Soon, another ad for Blatz Beer and Dual-Filter Tareyton. Presently, another annoying pause for station identification. “Shhh, peek inside there. The green room on the right. Do you see her? Do you see a fat brunette woman?” She is wallowing inside on the wide bed now, Fanning herself in the stifling heat with the LA Times; “Come on Maury! Steal that base,” she bellows. The crossword puzzle on page twenty six Is filled out in cursive with a number 2 pencil. Her bedside radio is blaring occasional static sounds Mixed with ghost music from Mexico. Turn left now forty-two inches into the third room, The faded beige-walled room with dead hanging draperies, And a broken-glassed window emitting dust creatures. Look! They are flitting in the air like crazy ballerinas, Dancing to Sonny and Cher with that oboe and the bells. See the boy reading Mad magazine? Batman and Argosy? See him play Dick Dale and the Del-Tones with a scratching needle? Now his grandmother is screaming in the yellow room, Yelling in pain, while writhing on the green-carpeted floor. “Call the doctor right away! Phoebe has fallen and can’t move!” Sunny and the Sunglows are singing Talk to Me on a distant radio. “Baba is going to die of a stroke! Get an ambulance now!” But Art Baker is now on television speaking to us from Television City in Hollywood; his voice as sweetly smooth as Bosco. But he looks like a guy who might sell you a Buick from hell. Whose footsteps do I now hear coming up from the dank basement? Whose voice do I now hear proclaiming loudly, The big discount sale at Leon Ames Ford in Encino? It is the pipe-smoking ghost from Nova Scotia, who Died in 1941, forty-two standard inches across the hallway. Can you hear them, my friend? The weeping whines from behind those doors? The grieving wails for the dead grandmother? The incredulous shrieks of shock of the dead grandfather? The wafting refrains of a drunk Tennessee Ernie Ford Singing baritone on a black and white TV screen: Let Me Walk With Thee? I do hear them still.
CAPTCHA Preview
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required