An Old Man Performs Poetry In A London Alley

What if we all wore rainbow scarves like the eighty-year-old man in the alley by the Globe with popcorn kernel teeth and a first name that means Open.

London Alley
PHOTO AMANDA DETTMANN

Poems on the ground labeled:

A boy in need of a bicycle

                                                            For a golden-hearted lady

                                                            An old dog wanting a lick of sugar

 

I slice my yellow For the adventurous at heart envelope open

on the steps of a chirping church

 

I cut trees with my hands,

my fingerprints like the rings inside a fallen stump,

 

faint but

there.

 

My poem reads:

 

You suffer from word-ventriloquism. You pull the string and speak, but it is not you talking.

 

And I realize

I have lied

in my writing

for so long,

 

London a scrub-down

mixed of pulsing

orange peels

clove coffee

 

the powder of my parents’ pawprints

in snow

telling me to tell a true story

one that truly hurts

 

like a last hug on gummy concrete steps, streetlamps photographing our shaking shadows

like an elementary school umpire shouting, “Nobody wins, it just begins again”

 

How did Shakespeare do it

did he stumble in his stubble

every time he shaved

 

a stranger slitting a violin at midnight

 

a hollow body iambically astronauting

 

back to Stratford

 

see the suspension

 

the penny cutting the edge

 

of ice

 

ringing

 

I guess what I’m trying to say:

 

What if we all wore rainbow scarves like the eighty-year-old man in the alley by the Globe with popcorn kernel teeth and a first name that means Open, hat laced with dandelion stems, chewing black licorice, passing out periwinkle paper poems for free?

 

 

 

What if we were all vaulted

 

cellulited & ceiling-less

London Alley
PHOTO AMANDA DETTMANN

Amanda Dettmann

Contributor

Amanda is an avid traveler who calls Maine her home, but her favorite places include Amsterdam's Christmas markets and Shakespeare's Globe in London. She is passionate about poetry, theatre, and teaching writing to kids and adults with disabilities. She thinks the best part of traveling is hearing strangers' incredible stories. Her ultimate mission? To find the tastiest cappuccino in the world.

Jetset Times in your inbox

Sign-up for our newsletter

By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and European users agree to the data transfer policy.