blue republic

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:49 pm

a poem about elwood in its uglier times.

The Madhouse

by jared carter

I cannot give you the squeak
of the blue chalk on the cue tip,
the sound of the break, or the movement
about the table, like a ritual of wine;

then I was not born. My father,
who saw it, was still in high school;
and there are others who remember
the poolroom on the avenue.

Here lounged the former heroes
of the high-school team, who took
the Tri-State Crown in '24, and tied
with Massillon in '25. Catholics all,

a backfield composed of Swede
Svendson at fullback, the Baxter brothers
at either half, and handsome Richard
O'Reilly at the quarter.

They had no peers, then or now.
On Saturdays regularly they stood,
hats firmly on their heads, watching
the procession of hooded Klansmen

coming up Anderson Street, heading
toward the Main intersection. Always
the Klan demanded hats removed
before the flag they carried,

always the boys at the Madhouse refused,
and began unscrewing the weighted ends
of their pool cues. People came to watch;
The police stood apart; the Klan

never got past the Madhouse. That
was years ago. They're all dead now,
Swede and the Baxter boys, and
Handsome Richard O'Reilly,

who married the banker's daughter;
and the Klansmen too. Only the men
who were boys then can still remember.
They talk about it, even now,

sitting in Joe's barbershop
watching cars go by, or sipping a beer
in Condon's tavern. It is a story
I heard when I was a boy. Lately

there's been a doughnut shop
where the Madhouse used to stand.
Mornings when I stop for coffee
I can almost hear it: the nine ball

dropping in the corner pocket,
the twelve rolling to within an inch
of the side; voices in the street
echoing along the store fronts.

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:51 pm

check out his site for more good stuff.

http://jaredcarter.com/

Captain Joined: 31 Dec 1969 Posts: 17910

i have to admit, he's one of my biggest influences. my mom always started choking up when reading his poems out loud. i cringed at that when i was a kid. now my eyes start to water when reading them.

her favorite was called (i think) "For Jack Chatham." it was about two brothers who went tearing around on motorcycles, and then one of them died by crashing off a bridge. the last line was something about "go ahead and ride, kid, while you got the chance."

i met Jared Carter when i was 9, and my band practices and writes most of our stuff in the basement of his boyhood home.