Working Class Corner

-by Russell Scott Day               

 

"I’m in outerspace right behind my face.

You might think I’m right infront of you,

But really I’m some other place.

I’m in outerspace,

Right behind my face."

 

Why I Live Here

 

I’ve been around and in fights I won or lost.

For me the world is a boxing ring.

      The best thing ever said about me was that I was a poet who got things done.

      The worst thing said was I didn’t have Charisma.

       I ought to run for Vice President with Dennis Kucinich then.

       I hope Dick Gephardt comes to town and has a beer with me.

       John Edwards built a house on the street I built one with a woman who quit feeding me after the house was built.

       I’ve lived in small towns, suburbs, and cities.  

       During the Viet Nam War I lived in Canada.

       I have been around on the East Coast of the North American Continent and North Carolina is great Real Estate.

       My father bought land here.

       My mother said he never bought a bad car, or took her to a bad movie, and he lived in NY, Virginia, and North Carolina.

       Otherwise he knew Switzerland after fighting across Germany during the Second World War.

       I was born in White Plains New York.

       I have ended up here near where my father bought a home for us.

       My mother lives in Greensboro, and my brother lives in Carrboro, and one sister lives in Greensboro, and the other lives in Little Rock Arkansas.

       Dad is dead and buried in St. Petersburg Florida.

       It would take me awhile to find his grave.

       6 people came to his burial.

       To me the greatest thing about America is that flying machines were invented here.

       I am so proud that I have Kitty Hawk in my log book.

       I come from sailors and priests and am working class and am tired of moving around and want to make where I live work for me, but know it is a creative class backwater.

       Rich people and the empowered get away with a lot of corruption because the land is so rich that their corruptions can be ignored by the working classes without the imperative of killings.

      One can be poor and famous without being murdered.

      I live here because I can get away with it.