Burgeon's Escape: The Man Wearing Flannel

Saturday, September 24, 2011

The Man Wearing Flannel

The man wearing flannel
Looks older than he is
Grey whiskers like buckshot
In his thin beard

He's been in the weather
But looks better for it
His lips are dry and cracked
With apathy

His hands and eyes are brown
First hard, the latter soft
What brings him happiness
If anything?

Is he an outdoorsman?
Does he smoke tobacco?
Does he enjoy music?
Is he well-read?

Is he a communist?
Was he at church Sunday?
Does he love a woman?
Is she still there?

What wars has he fought in?
What mistakes has he made?
Is he a good father?
I'll never know

2 comments:

Stephen HodsonOctober 4, 2011 at 8:46 AM
I don't get it..why will the writer never know these things he asks?
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ElizabethOctober 12, 2011 at 10:22 AM
You are such a good writer :)
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Inspiration

"It doesn't matter what we write (at least this is my view) at our age, so long as we write continually as well as we can. I feel that every time I write a page either of prose or of verse, with real effort, even if it's thrown into the fire next minute, I am so much further on."
- C.S. Lewis
letter to Arthur Greeves

"Come writers and critics who prophesy with your pen, and keep your eyes wide - the chance won't come again."
- Bob Dylan
"The Times They are A-Changin'"

"I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which 'Escape' is now so often used [...] Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it. In using escape in this way the critics have chosen the wrong word, and, what is more, they are confusing, not always by sincere error, the Escape of the Prisoner with the Flight of the Deserter."
- J.R.R. Tolkien
"On Fairy Stories"

"In accumulating property for ourselves or our posterity, in founding [...] a state, or acquiring fame even, we are mortal; but in dealing with truth we
are immortal."
- Henry David Thoreau
Walden

"Man, I know very well you didn't come to me only to want to become a writer, and after all what do I really know about it except you've got to stick to it with the energy of a benny addict."
- Jack Kerouac
On the Road