Login   Sign Up 



 

The Nerd in the Daylight

by dr_mandrill 

Posted: 06 January 2004
Word Count: 150
Summary: I noticed some of my friends look a bit weird when viewed out of context.


Font Size
 


Printable Version
Print Double spaced


He works a job somewhere I think,
Though he doesn't talk about it.
They don't own him.

He wakes up at night.
The world that parents shut out with spacerocket curtains,
The one with single cars alone at stoplights
And amber shattered on dark wet asphalt,
Is his.

He looks great in neon.
The tide of white and watery blue from various backlit screens
Washes the scars of late-night fried chicken dependency
Away.

He knows where to go to see a film at 3 a.m.
And everything about electro.
And how can he walk the streets in a teeshirt at 3 a.m.?
Isn't he cold?
He's cool.

I saw him once in daylight.
We discussed the captaincies of Kirk and Picard
And sat right up against the window eating onion rings.
He looked tired the whole time
And the afternoon suited him
As badly as the tie around his neck.






Favourite this work Favourite This Author


Comments by other Members



Fearless at 12:51 on 06 January 2004  Report this post
dm

I like this - a lot. As one with friends who are weird (one looks like a cross of Topov out of 'Pipkins' and Pigsy in 'Monkee', another an encyclopedia of music), it is funny to see them in their work persona, at weddings, performing jury duty, etc. In fact, it makes me laugh like the sad mf I am.

Write on

fearless

<Added>

The following lines reminded me of my childhood:

'The world that parents shut out with spacerocket curtains,
The one with single cars alone at stoplights
And amber shattered on dark wet asphalt,'

The image of amber on dark wet asphalt resonates very strongly - winter evening's coming home a little late from school, street lamps on.....

..thanks man.

Bobo at 17:59 on 06 January 2004  Report this post
Dr M - you've really captured something here! Anyone out of their familiar context is somehow 'wrong', bizarre, just plain freaky. Enjoyable piece.

BoBo x

Sparrow_splitter at 22:15 on 06 January 2004  Report this post
Very funny, would make Sir Pratchett laugh out loud.
Just one thing though... you talkin 'bout me?

dr_mandrill at 23:58 on 06 January 2004  Report this post
Cheers guys.

Fearless- maybe that's the true measure of a friendship: does the sight of them all dressed up in their work clothes looking serious reduce you to fits of giggles?

Sparrow- not the details, obviously (except Kirk and Picard); but that time you wore a tie was funny. Ok, we were all wearing ties and looking stupid, but at least we looked better than Gary.

Sparrow_splitter at 10:10 on 07 January 2004  Report this post
Everyone looks better than Gary, he still disgusts me... 'I reckon'

miffle at 09:47 on 20 January 2004  Report this post

I liked this poem too and yes, I liked the 'spacerocket curtains' stanza especially too as I know exactly the material you're talking about!

It left me feeling sad actually (very sad) making me think of the Beatle's song Eleanor Rigby and of her male equivalents out there pounding the pavements of our cities and our towns (I always think that cities seem the most lonely and saddest of places) but maybe that's because I haven't lived in one for any length of time (?)...It also made me think of the statistics re. suicide i.e. that single young men are the society group most at risk. It also made me think about procreation - i.e. who would want to wish this on their son...

nikki

dr_mandrill at 19:29 on 25 January 2004  Report this post
I hadn't thought about it that way when I wrote it; but I can see the sadness in it now I look back at it. I was really trying to show how some people can be your best friends in the world, and yet have a whole side to them that you never see (and wouldn't want to). It is sad that a lot of us have to cram the kind of life we want to lead into the wee small hours, and waste the daylight on things we hate, like earning a living.

I had a job when I wrote this.


dm

anisoara at 00:04 on 27 November 2004  Report this post
I really enjoyed this one. It was so unexpected! (Thank you Random Read button!)

Ani

Kara at 09:15 on 27 February 2006  Report this post
a wonderful poem. but no, peole wearing t-shirts in the night just look cold. that's not an opinion, its a fact. Best wishes Kara


To post comments you need to become a member. If you are already a member, please log in .