At the corner (four versions)

Four versions of “At the corner”
1.

Of summer, of the man on notice
there where the corner aches
in his trash long redolent
of the bar down the street

a cig-butt nobody he is to the point
but he strings along & sips his beer
and it’s the seventh sidewalk
electric-live lights all around

one bum dredging Sophie
she fat with oak branches
the delicious cool Magazine
where Sophie Wright intersects

where a bar drops the overhead block
on the rags of nurses inside
where one sharp dude is at the corner.

2.

Trash drops on the street.
Is a man a Wright? It’s come to that.
He sits in the park. He blocks the on

and the around, intersects where
there are bars at any point,
bars long noticed & oak drops.

The delicious cig-butt & strings
& magazines skim the overhead sidewalk
While Sophie rags nurses in the Park.

Sophie at seven alive, she lights
the bum to a beer, the seven-inside
where sharp corners egg Wright on.

The nobody cool & the branches
there be within the redolent summer
wherewith the bum is at the corner.

3.

Notice where beer is in the park.
Seven arcs intersect the oak corner,
While in the street, Sophie longs
& Sophie lights & Sophie
hits the bars on any block.

There are the the drops on branches
In the park & at seven the bum
In delicious summer swims Wright around,
Wright’s cool point within,

it’s the of and the on,
it’s the bar that lives.
But he sits and rags nurses
He’s nobody man fan The Magazine

redolent sharp? He’s too trashy
with hot strings coming to be
at the end of the sidewalk

where inside overhead it’s
where it is at the corner.

4.
In Sophie Wright Park,
a man in rags nurses a butt
and longs to be inside a bar
any bar, there are seven
within a block of where he sits,
where it’s cool and redolent of delicious beer.
The live oak at the point of the park,
where Magazine intersects with Sophie Wright,
drops its summer trash on the sidewalk,
the street, the bum. At seven sharp,
the strings of lights in the
branches overhead come on,
but nobody is around to notice
at the corner.

.

R Young (based loosely on issue no. 18 of The International Times).