I Speak New Yawk

Cherry

By hudsonmoon

Sun, 20 Mar 2016
  • 2183 reads
11 comments
 

I speak New Yawk
and don't yield the right of way
to commas or stop on a dime for a screech-to-a-halt
period when plowing through words and phrases
like a renegade locomotive
bound for parts of speech unknown I’ll
chum up with an occasional exclamation point
even when told pointing is not polite
then go have a drink or two with a bulbous-headed question mark
shaking my head at its Spanish compadre when it’s
had to much to drink and gets all inverted on top of the bar
causing us to get tossed to the curb
where I spot a graffittied wall across the way telling me to
“mind your p’s and q’s” as I unzip and
spray beer on its flaming pink quotation

(Picture source: https://beingabeautifulmess.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/ps-and-qs.jpg?w=...)

Certificate PG
Poem
Humour

Comments

Submitted by Bee on

Unapologetic and refreshing. 

Bee

Submitted by hudsonmoon on

Thank you, Deborah. Sometimes, when the wheels in my head are oiled just right, I speak so fast that it's almost another language.

Rich x

 

Submitted by Penny4athought on

smileyyes

Penny4athought

Submitted by Penny4athought on

I must refocus my perception and aplogize I did not see this poem in the light you intended. I too am a native New Yorker born and raised in Brooklyn...way before the Hollywood influx and gentrification. My peeve growing up was when people made fun of New Yorkers and I incorrectly perceived your poem in that way--forgive me... but re-reading it now --- It is humous and flows well- and deserves the recognition.

Penny4athought

Submitted by hudsonmoon on

Ah, a fellow New Yawker. Love it. No apology neccessery, Penny. I could see where a New Yorker would get offended if they thought an outsider was making fun of them. We're all very territorial. lol. Glad you re-read and saw it for the fun read I intended. Thank you.

Rich

 

Submitted by hudsonmoon on

I was born and raised and work in New York City. I know it well. On occasion people will ask me to slow down because I talk too fast. New York is diverse and the character in the piece is an authentic part of it. At least the New York I grew up in.

Cheers,

Rich

 

Submitted by hudsonmoon on

Thanks, Eds, for the seeet cherries.

Rich

 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

Love the energy and lack of retraint in this.  It's so fascinating to listen to how people speak.  There's a real sense of the city here.  It would be so good to have a whole lot of poems that refelct the way people speak in different places - would be a good IP or something. :)

Submitted by hudsonmoon on

Thanks, PS. In the 50's and 60's I grew up in a neighborhood in New York city called Yorkville. It's on the upper east side. And this is the sort of sing-song non-stop talking you'd here when I was growing up. It may be because most everyone in the neighborhood came from poor, large families living in cramped railroad flats. You really had to talk fast and loud to be heard. Now I think it's mostly hipster territory. Coffee shops and micro breweries springing up on every cormer. But there are remants of the old neighborhood left. Some diehards refuse to leave. Gentrification be damned! lol.

Rich x

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

I thought it was Welsh people who spoke fast, compared to southern England anyway. I know when my husband is busy I tend to rush like a train through all the news, and then realise he's lost me somewhere and I have to start all over again slowly, but the excitement has got lost sometimes!
Your piece also made me think of the desire to not bother with punctuation in writing nowadays, but sometimes it does lead to confusion. Like a headline this morning saying a lady had given birth to twins aged 53. Though I suppose that's word order, not punctuation! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by hudsonmoon on

Thanks, Rhinannanw. Most writing without puncuation would be difficult to decipher, I'm thinking. There''d be a lot of head scratching s to intent. But speaking's another thing. I'm used to the fast talker. But I've been with my wife for thirty three years and she even asks me to slow down. When we first met, we'd be out and I'd say, 'Igottagotothebathroom!' and she'd say, 'What?: I still say it like that when I really have to go. lol. 

Rich