You left for the bathroom. I wiped the bar clean.
Some things, I suppose, are better unsaid.
Sometimes the news we receive is so mean.
“Country and western is dead.”
Some things, I suppose, are better unsaid.
You searched your sleeve for a tissue.
“Country and western is dead?”
I leaned over the bar, tried to kiss you.
You searched your sleeve for a tissue.
The neon in the parking lot blinks.
I leaned over the bar, tried to kiss you.
You said, “Nicky, just set up the drinks.”
The neon in the parking lot blinks.
The jukebox begs to be fed.
You said, “Nicky, just set up the drinks.
Country and western is dead.”
*
[this originally was a kinda b-side for the EIF Pantoum challenge at the back end of last year. I’ve been digging and scratching round Tombstone for survivors this weekend and found this. Figured a body could do with some corralling. Ok?]
[i was making these jam jar dioramas this time last year, the image used for country + western = dead being one of my favourites. the tattered scratch built billboard and the lonely figures seeming quite suited to the highway mood of the piece above]
nickreeves 
…but the pantoum lives!
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All that stretching must’ve paid off in the end, Ingrid! 🙂 x
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It’s poetic yoga!
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It really is!
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This could make a good ballad
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Yippee. Thanks, Derrick.
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🙂
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Loving the body, Nick.
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Thanks, Rick!
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I love, love, love this poem!!! It’s so sad and human and poignant. It’s what poetry is supposed to be.
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Mwah.
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😀
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The last four lines really got me…in a sad, wonderful way. Well done, Nick!
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Don’t be sad.
C&W lives on, Bob.
😦
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You had me at “country music is dead.”
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Haha! Thanks, Susi.
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🙂 You’re welcome, Nick!
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That has a really good feel and rhythm to it, Nick. Great stuff! Country was never alive in the first place was it? Apart from five minutes where Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan were trying to put some life into it…I hate country and western…
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Lol. I’m beginning to get the measure of you, with your punk rock tee and your skinny jean!
I’m not convinced that C&W can be hemmed so easily.
ps: i am partial to sweetheart of the rodeo & I’ll eat my hat if there ain’t more gold in them hills.
p/ps: the research continues x
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