“Our Gang” for One Stop Poetry Challenge
I selected the following photo for today’s One Stop Poetry Picture Prompt Challenge… Everyone is welcome to participate. Click Here
Curb quiet
Out on the street
“Our Gang” sits
Hard times, that fear repeats
Collective despair, begging heirs
Tenterhooks, penniless, squalor bequeathed
Checks into Hoovervilles
Smells of burning garbage
Crawling into appliance box holes
For slimy grits and lumpy porridge
Grace said over every meal
City streets to forage
While removed from joy
Health care won’t give
Insensitive skits
Their system quit
No money for shoes
Nor holiday gifts…
Children feel cuts
When depression hits
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About the Photo: Depression Era Childhood Faces (St. Louis, Missouri)
*image care of creative commons flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rodinal1/2185086399/in/photostream/
Dustus Blog 
November 28, 2010 at 12:25 am
Great Work!!
November 28, 2010 at 1:25 am
Thank you!
November 28, 2010 at 2:34 am
children feel cuts when recession hits….boy that is a strong statement that i know only too well…..history DOES repeat itself…as times were then so they are now…all that changes are material things…a great write adam…and thanks for for this great picture prompt…pete
November 28, 2010 at 10:52 am
Appreciate you and Leslie posting today. Great poem you shared yesterday too!
Cheers, mate.
November 28, 2010 at 3:06 am
A wonderful write, it brings to mind some of the stories my mum have told me about her childhood.
Anita.
November 28, 2010 at 10:59 am
Glad you connected with the prompt piece. Thanks for sharing that about your mum 🙂
November 28, 2010 at 6:09 am
Great read! Great poem! Thanks, Adam. I like the ‘beat’.
November 28, 2010 at 10:59 am
Thanks for stopping by 🙂 Have a great weekend.
November 28, 2010 at 6:39 am
This takes me back to my childhood in Ghana not the desperation but the gang, nice write friend
November 28, 2010 at 11:01 am
Thanks for posting today, Kodjo. Always enjoy reading your work.
November 28, 2010 at 8:23 am
fantastic take on the prompt adam – you paint a picture of a sad reality and i can almost smell the burning garbage
November 28, 2010 at 11:02 am
Claudia, your response to the prompt was outstanding… as usual 🙂
cheers
November 28, 2010 at 8:37 am
Really like this poem a lot…a very fine response to the prompt.
November 28, 2010 at 11:03 am
Thanks, Charles. Hope you enjoyed this holiday week.
November 28, 2010 at 8:41 am
So well captured, as only you could… reminds me of the time of my parents… Only a pair of new shoes a year… no matter how long your feet became in the way…
‘Children feel cuts
When depression hits.’ WoW man!
🙂
Dulce
November 28, 2010 at 11:04 am
Dulce, thanks for always being so supportive. Greatly appreciate that 🙂
November 28, 2010 at 11:09 am
Childrern are always the first to feel it, often simply by watching the faces of their parents. Love the images here, Adam.
November 28, 2010 at 11:22 am
Think you’re right about kids and their observational learning. Thanks, Glynn. Enjoyed your response to the prompt today!
November 28, 2010 at 11:15 am
Powerful piece, yes, children do feel the cuts, but then they haven’t been hardened by the past cuts yet… great phtoo selection this week.
November 28, 2010 at 11:30 am
Good point, Reflections…. your comment reminds me of when older members of my family used to look back on childhood and say they didn’t realize they were extremely poor. In hindsight, their wonder now seems disbelief, and not without thankfulness for relatively better circumstances.
November 28, 2010 at 11:43 am
How quick we forget–my grandparents lived through these days. I remember their stories, and understand why they lived frugally even when surrounded with blessing. But my children don’t have a clue.
Great imagery! Thanks, Adam.
November 28, 2010 at 11:48 am
Adam,
I just tried to download this photo from flickr and noticed the licensing states All rights reserved. Do we have permission to post it?
Thanks.
November 28, 2010 at 11:54 am
Excellent blend/reflections of past and present hard times, great word picks thrown with accuracy and hitting home, the our Gang reference too–some irony at the slapstick comedy people found then to comfort themselves and the stark contrast it made with reality, losing everything but the capacity to dream it better. Enjoyed this very much.
November 28, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Quite appropriate one shot Dustus
November 28, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Well done and, unfortunately, timely.
November 28, 2010 at 4:20 pm
What I particularly like about this poem is its applicability both to a past we learned about from our parents (those of old enough, that is, to have parents born well before the Depression) and to circumstances still with us. Adding the “Our Gang” reference was a wonderful touch.
November 28, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Strong ending note – so true what they say: it’s always the children who suffer. Very accessible poem, very real in feeling, applying in a sense both then and now. Reaches across the boundaries. Great, and tragic, work with the prompt Dustus!
November 28, 2010 at 5:40 pm
No children are not insulated from hard times no matter how hard we would like to protect them.
Thanks Dustus!!!
November 28, 2010 at 7:52 pm
Poor wee boys look so grim and grimey too. Excellent One Shot. sorry I’m so late, been one of those weeks.
November 28, 2010 at 8:03 pm
That era was such a sad time for so many. I wasn’t born yet, but, my parents weren’t affected as bad as others, they lived in the country and could grow food and preserve it for the winter months. Your poem describes the despair of so many at that time.
November 28, 2010 at 11:17 pm
The our gang reference, just makes it very real!
Even though I can’t truly say that I understand the depth of the hardships, your words fit the picture to the ‘T’.
November 29, 2010 at 6:10 am
Ouch, this is painful.
Brilliant but painful.
November 29, 2010 at 8:18 pm
Adam what a picture. These are so familiar to me – given to me by my own father. I love the approach, and the site. I had to stop and say hello. Thanks again for your poetry at Got Poetry, and hopefully I will be by more often. Time just goes by… as the song said. But I will try my hardest.
Sincerely, Nancy
November 30, 2010 at 4:35 am
Really vivid.
November 30, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Excellent, Adam. This reminds me of listening to my Granny speak of Hoover, my Father tell of the depression and my Grandfather telling me how lucky they were compared to some…
December 1, 2010 at 11:58 am
Dark, poignant and evocative. Well done.
December 1, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Bleak days indeed, nicely captured with this poem.
December 2, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Hey Dustus,
Today my blog turns one and I am inviting you for the birthday party. Hope to see you there….cheers!
http://lordemmanuel.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/today-this-blog-turns-1/
December 2, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Happy Birthday, my friend! 🙂