Sorry, what is LES? I’m surprised any of us survived the 70s, but at least you had good music. I was overseas in the mid 70s and all i ever got to hear was disco and Peter Frampton. I’ll never get “Love Roller Coaster” out of my head.
I liked disco. I hung out in the gay bars before it became popular among the white folks and the straight peeps. I hated the electronic euro trash stuff.
This reads like a novel or monologue, I like the references to mythology. Myths are relevant when you have experienced your own rites of passage.
My biographical poems are all of them monologues I share with the reader. I have no children to tell and my husband is bored. My poor cousin Billy died of. Lung cancer this past August.
I’m sorry for your loss. One of my cousins committed suicide 15 years ago. Another cousin who is close to my age is a severe alcoholic who exhibits signs of wet brain syndrome. Her father was also a severe alcoholic and very abusive. He molested his daughters and nieces and beat the hell out of my aunt (RIP).
I was 12 years old in 1977. I started smoking pot and drinking. I’m amazed that I survived the 70’s and 80’s. I self-medicated a lot up until the point when I got pregnant in 1989. Once my son stopped nursing, I started drinking again. I was never an alcoholic because I could go without it for days and even weeks, but when I got hold of it, I put it away. That stopped in my 40’s because I could no longer tolerate it.
I’m kind of amazed that any of us survived!
I visited New York many years ago but we stayed in Manhattan and I never went to the Lower East Side, although my husband has been since. As you know, Toni, I love your autobiographical poems and this one reminds me of Patti Smith’s writing (I love her!). I like the repetition of ‘it’s a wonder we made it out alive’.
It is a wonder you made it out alive. Our nearest big city, Vancouver, has a desperate lower east side too, people die on the streets every day from the Fentanyl lacing the drugs. You captured the grit well in this poem.
What a powerful write depicting that time Toni.
What a story. It is powerful, real, and the images slap you with moments from history. We made it through the 70’s. So worried about the times we’re living now.