TWO QUATERNS

TWO QUATERNS [Author's note: I've pretty much avoided any attempt at poetry until last night's writing group. I was introduced to various formats of poetry, and the quatern is one of them. Here are two examples I came up with at our meeting.]

There's a reason life is like this

Scramble and scrape to make ends meet

Bosses that don't give half a damn

Little upward mobility

Cold and frightened, lying in bed

There's a reason life is like this

On the other side of Greenmount*

Admit it: it's another world

Smacked on the ass at her day job

E'en when a public accountant

There's a reason life is like this

He's the master, you're kept a slave

The American Dream is here

Just not for you, just not for me

Distracting you from what matters

There's a reason life is like this

I'd rather ride a bicycle

Languish in a two-hour round trip?

Constantly risk fender benders?

Then insurance? Registration?

Crotch-rocket ride to certain doom? I'd rather ride a bicycle

Motorized, two-wheeled, loud-ass hawg

Or prissy, pampered Bee-Emm-Dub

Motor, no imagination

Climate control, no exertion

I'd rather ride a bicycle

Earn journey and destination

Backyard lounge on a sunny day

Well-worn couch on big-game Sunday

Creaky desk chair, flat monitor

I'd rather ride a bicycle

* Greenmount Avenue: a street near where I live. Along this particular segment, there's a Redlining legacy section of town on one side, and a working class/working poor segment on the other side.