Familiar Haunts
John Jessup Kennan 1953 (Pomona)
Charlene was a waitress
Sweetest heart you'll ever know
Served up on steaming platters
The early bird special to go
Grew up on the coast but home
Is wherever she hangs her head
Always there to refill your cup
But she'll never make your bed
The rice fields are flooded now
Hay in bales on the ground
The bones are all plowed under
Memories hangin round
Sidewalks conjure feelings
Unsettle the ancient call
Somewhere deep inside of you
Deep down inside the fall
It's a shadow in the dark
A whisper in a breeze
A feeling in the air
A rustling in the leaves
A movement on the street
Stirring inside of me
I don't know who she is
But then, neither does she
Truckers curse the weather
Go find a place to eat
Sidewalks come to mystery
Haunt the boots out on the street
It's steam from manhole covers
A shiver in an alleyway
Lookin for early bird specials
Tomorrow is yesterday
The warm in Charlene's kitchen
Disappears into the vague
No specials on the menu now
The beds are all unmade
I thought I felt a movement
Felt it pass through me I swear
Sweetest heart I never knew
I turned, nothing was there
It's a shadow in the dark
A whisper in a breeze
A feeling in the air
A rustling in the leaves
A movement on the street
Stirring inside of me
I don't know who she is
But then, neither does she
Charlene was a whisper
Sweetest heart you'll chance upon
It must be tomorrow
Today is boarded up and gone
© John Kennan 11-12-20
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Submitted by rankstranger7 on May 24, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:23 min read
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Quick analysis:
Scheme | xabaxcxc defexghg IJKLMNON fmnmbpxp qxdxxkhk IJKLMNON fxax q |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,367 |
Words | 270 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 4, 1 |
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"Familiar Haunts" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/100871/familiar-haunts>.
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