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What are you, a Communist? Listen, I owned my own...
Posted on 2010-Feb-11 at 11:47
What are you, a Communist? Listen, I owned my own business, I was a big man in my town, I had money in the bank, I was all set to go but there was a conspiracy
It's the big boys, they're scared of us, 'I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal, You,' what do ya think those songs don' mean anything? That's the only line anybody remembers
Red sits there drowsing(They're full of crapThe thing to do is to keep moving, and keep your mouth shut
You think I'm a Communist; listen, I'm a student of human nature, I'm self-educatedAmerican aspirations, that's what those songs are, opium for the masses, catch phrases to fool a manit's a passion for movement, it's to trick us into staying at home and being exploited
They're gonna move us out, men
I'm movin' anyway, Red says
Somehow it seems as if you never do go under, there is always the providential handout, or the pair of shoes you can buy cartier women's watches after the ones you own flap in the windSomehow, there is always a little job, or some meal to keep you going, or there's a new town to go to, there is even the good feeling once every month or two when you catch a freight at dawn, and the land rises out of the night and you're not too hungry
If you throw a handful of straw into a river, some of it stays afloat even in a rapids, there is always something to give you a boostYou keep going and the summer ends, the nights get chill (half a buck in your pocket and winter acoming) but there's always a railroad track heading south, there is usually a jail where they'll let you sleep the night
And if you get through it there's Relief after a while, and even a couple of jobsDishwasher, short-order cook, a shingler, a farm hand, a house painter, a plumber, even a gasoline pump
In 'thirty-five he works in a restaurant for almost a year, the best louis vuitton diaper bag tote dishwasher they ever had(The rush hour lasts from twelve to three at that end of the kitchenThe dishes come clanking down the dumbwaiter, and the tray man mops the food and grease with his hand, fingers the lipstick on the glasses to loosen it, and drops them in a rackIn the machine, the steam vibrates and sings, whips out at the other end, where the finish man pulls out the tray with tongs, and wiggles the plates with his fingertips as he flips them on a pileYou don't grab it with your bare hand, Jack
After work Red goes back to his furnished room (two-fifty a week, the carpeting on the stairs has thickened with age and springs underfoot like soft dusty turf) and lies down on his bedIf he's not too pooped, he gets up after a while, and drifts down to the bar around the corner(The gray cracked asphalt, the garbage cans spilling over in the areaways, the stippled light of the neon sign, two cartier ballon bleu price letters are missing
A man always has philosophyI'll tell ya, Red, I used to think for a time I made a mistake gettin' marriedI used to get mad, you know, I'd start wondering what am I workin' for, but, aah, you get over itYou take those two kids over there feeling each other in that boothRight now one of them can't even breathe without the other -- my old lady used to be like that with meI don't get mad, I know what the score is, those kids are gonna end up like you, like me, like everybody
(The beer is flat and tastes like pennies Me, Red says, I never horse around much with the womenThey just want to trap ya, I seen enough of it
Aw, it ain't that bad, there's good things about marriage and women, but it ain't what you think you're gonna get when you start offYou know a married man has worries, I'll tell ya, Red, sometimes I wish I been the places you have
Yeah, I'll take Two-bit chanel handbags for sale Annie
In the brothel the girls wear halters and trim panties with a tropical print, an actress has made the style famous this yearThey gather like burlesque queens in the living room with the ashtrays and the chipped modernistic furniture
Okay, Pearl, let's go
He follows her up the gray spongy carpeting of the stairs, watching the automatic waggle of her hips
Haven't seen ya in a long time, Red
Yeah, ya went to Roberta last timeShe reproves him, Dearie
In the cubicle, the blanket is folded at the foot of the bed, smudged with the shoes of other men(BETTY COED HAS LIPS OF RED FOR HARVARD She slips his dollar under the pillowEasy, Red, momma's had a long hard day
The throe quivers along his back, leaves his loins charged and sickly
How about one on the house?
Aw, now, honey, you know what Eddie would do if he found us girls givin' it away
He dresses quickly, feeling her arm on his louis vuitton denim purse shoulder
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