Lord Barham
Jul 20, 2022

Fallen Angels

Grunge;
-------the last act,
Obscene anthems:
-------Screams of rage and pain,
-------From the abused children
-------Of loggers and fishermen;
-------One more fucked up teenager on drugs;
This is truly a West Coast sound ...

When will the Old World listen
To what their children are saying?
But the only sound they hear
Is the soft swish of dollar bills falling
Into the hat passed round
As they count up the cash
Of fallen angels,
The night-time angels of tired streets
And decaying alleys
Oozing listless promises
Of run down sins
As though time
Had worn itself out
With its own emptiness ...
Is abuse something new?
Or did we keep silent so long
Because no one cared?
How many of these abused children
Will themselves become abusers?
Those of us who were silenced so long
Became environmentalists.

The falling eyes
Of the fallen children
Of this Old World,
Angels every one of us,
Turned to dust and ashes
In this Pointless Grey Place
Where no one cares
I see fallen angels
Everywhere
Vancouver, BC Fall 1994

About This Poem

Last Few Words: I mentioned to someone when critiquing her poem, that I sometimes deliberately leave lines unpunctuated so as to induce meaning variability. (This is a horrible term I've concocted to describe this feature: essentially, I want to make the lines have more than one possible meaning or intention.) The last five lines of this poem do that. It was written in the mid 90s when Grunge and Hard Core dominated the booze cans and more alternative clubs and dives in Vancouver. Having worked in the fishing industry and known people in the logging industry, I was aware of the high levels of physical child abuse that went on in some of those communities. I had also read that Kurt Cobaine had suffered such abuse growing up. This was my response to a night out spent in a Booze Can (illegal and informal after hours drinking establishment that was a feature of Vancouver in the 80s and 90s) listening to a Grunge Band.

Style/Type: Free verse

Review Request Direction: [This option has been removed]

Review Request Intensity: I appreciate moderate constructive criticism

Editing Stage: Not actively editing

About the Author

Country/Region: CAN

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Comments

L

The dashes preceding lines 2,4,5,6, & 7 represent spaces. Unfortunately, the algorithm for posting does not allow one to visually structure a poem on the page, which is annoying as hell, since I use visual structuring a lot!

lovedly

worse than animals
develop their balls faster than changing Falls
A place called NIAGARA HERE
has a significant fall

so all over the world i have seen
kids being squashed as orange balls
Once in the far East
a kid came to a tourist
and clearly
said for 2 dollars .....a booze
you can snooze
and
forget all the gals they couldn't be worse .........
As you'd say ee Cumming is coming .....

The drugist took a dose and burst out his liquid dose
sans
was when he discovered his last ten dollars
others istill in Q .........
would you believe this way are born dicks blue.....
I used ellipses
till they nearly squeezed me here............................

last month I missed my flight to VANCOUVER...........................................................

L

You were going to come to Vancouver? Give me a shout if you do pop up my way. Perhaps we can go for a drink of some kind (alcoholic or non-alcoholic, whichever is your preference). I like some of those lines and am envious you came up with 'em first! ee cummings is coming and A place called Niagara here/has a significant fall especially tickling my fancy!

lovedly

sad time betrayed me
the storm that day
denied my
RIGHT
delayed my flight
then they said
NO FLIGHT
Just imagine my plight
you might

no chance now in this life
the clouds have come again
in Niagara may not still rain
I know
as I am standing outside the met office
their MODELS
now don't match

today mostly lovely nudes
leave their bikinis loose
lest it rains