Charles J Butler | west 97th street lope

west 97th street lope

walking
       with the ladies
in
       the rain
down
       97th
                 past Amsterdam
they
       linger over a set
of
       prints
                 he knows to be theirs
smiles
       thinking stupid dogs
don’t
       even know you left a part of
yourselves
                 behind
then
       he looks
                          at them
they
       at him
       smiling
                 their dog
smiles
                                  they’ll
       go on walking
doing
       their business
loping
       together
                          thinking
hundred
       years from now others will see our
prints           fill their snouts
with our scents
                 they’ll know
Kirby and
       Eureka – ‘Reka to her
friends – were here            later
in the home       watching them sleep      he says a
prayer to the lord        for the souls
                                           of two stupid dogs

Charles J. Butler hosts the Park Slope Poetry Project, and is the sometime guest host at The Perch Café and recently had his first book published 39 Poems by No Shirt Press.

©Charles J. Butler 2010

Next Prairie Fire Reading Sunday April 18

SUNDAY 4/18 - 6pm (sign up 5:30pm)

Peter Chelnik's "Prairie Fire Jazz Poetry"

~features~

ZEV TORRES

&

CHARLES BUTLER

&

Host PETER CHELNIK

with BOB FELDMAN on Tenor Saz

&

The Open Mic

@
AMERICAN THEATRE OF ACTORS
314 W. 54th St. (bet. 8th & 9th Aves.)
Hell's Kitchen, NYC 10019
(212) 581-3044
www.appleboxdesign.com/ATA/ata.html


Admission: $5

Zev Torres’ most recent chapbook, Revision, was published January 2010. His earlier books are In Celebration of Hope and Change and The Beginning of Time. In addition to being the featured reader at numerous venues through New York City (including Otto’s Shrunken Head), Zev has also performed his poetry at the JVC Jazz Festival and the Make Music New York Festival. Zev blogs at http://zevtorres.wordpress.com/

Charles Butler co-hosts Literary Tuesdays at Perch Cafe in Brooklyn. Charles participated in Emilie Glen's legendary downtown readings in the 1970’s, and read at the original Nyorican Poets' Café. Re-emerging as a performance poet in 2006, he continues to share the inside story of the streets, through many views and voices. Butler’s work has appeared in Abestos, Brownstone Poets Anthology, Rogue Scholars, among other places.