Bot is an anachronism, I suppose, Doug, not used now as far as I know. But
then, it was common to bot a smoke or be aware of someone ‘on the bot’, so
I think it ok to use.
I’ll stand by my deliberate use of the definite article as indicative of
ritual. Also partly homage to the standalone line at the end of Eliot’s
first Prelude:
And then the lighting of the lamps
Bill
On Thu, 30 May 2019 at 3:54 am, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Something i didn’t try, Bill, just cigs in a packet & quite.
>
> Maybe drop the first ‘the[ in line 2?
>
> Given how much in the past it is, I hear ‘bot’ as an anachronism…?
>
> Doug
> > On May 28, 2019, at 5:06 PM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >
> > 1
> >
> >
> > Couldn’t walk out the door
> >
> > without the patting of the pockets.
> >
> > Had to hear the reassuring pants rattle
> >
> > - little wood against little wood,
> >
> > red nubs forward, blacks back
> >
> >
> > And the shirt pocket plastic plop
> >
> > of the ready-rubbed tobacco packet
> >
> > Needing to be so armed
> >
> > to take on the day
> >
> > and not be a bot
> >
> >
> >
> > The thrill of tucking in the Tally Ho paper
> >
> > behind the tiny finger-log
> >
> > of moustache-like tobacco,
> >
> > getting that roll right
> >
> > before the crowning lick
> >
> >
> > And then the poke,
> >
> > even a black-dead match will do
> >
> > and the twirl for the mouth end
> >
> > Moisten lips, insert,
> >
> > - now the striking of the match
> >
> >
> > 2
> >
> >
> > Never looked cool
> >
> > Never felt cool
> >
> >
> > Anyone watching me light up
> >
> > would cack themselves
> >
> >
> > James Dean never
> >
> > went cross-eyed
> >
> >
> > I miss the way
> >
> > those inhalations and exhalations
> >
> >
> > inhabited my system
> >
> > charging me
> >
> >
> > No more stoking
> >
> > the engine of being
> >
> >
> > Feel a little like
> >
> > an unhitched caboose
> >
> >
> > bw
> >
> > ########################################################################
> >
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>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
> https://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
>
> Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuations
> 2 (UofAPress).
> Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
> Listen. If (UofAPress):
>
>
> Four or five couplets trying to dance
> into Persia. Who dances in Persia now?
>
> A magic carpet, a prayer mat, red.
> A knocked off head of somebody on her broken knees.
>
> Phyllis Webb
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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> ########################################################################
>
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