{"id":70,"date":"2004-10-02T01:09:28","date_gmt":"2004-10-02T07:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2004\/10\/02\/sunset-over-sams-club\/"},"modified":"2006-02-16T01:14:59","modified_gmt":"2006-02-16T07:14:59","slug":"sunset-over-sams-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/10\/sunset-over-sams-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunset over Sam’s Club"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sailor’s Delight, a poem<\/font><\/h4>\n
Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock<\/font><\/h6>\n

Saturday, October 2, 2004.<\/font><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

Sailor’s Delight<\/font><\/h5>\n
©2004 Ben S. Pollock<\/font><\/h6>\n

I am no Pollyanna, or maybe I am.
\n I’m not trying to see good even in the worst.
\n Yet my standards are softer. After all
\n I don’t want to be in that bad state again.
\n      — at least not without cause.<\/font><\/p>\n

So I’m at my new job now six months,
\n but this starts weeks ago. I’m working swing,
\n the four-to-midnight shift. Why I thought I’d
\n left those days … well, nights … 15 years ago …<\/font><\/p>\n

Anyway, I look up from my desk toward
\n the dimming door (Old habits never die, damned
\n if they don’t adapt and follow). Through the glass
\n I see the western sun as the horizon pulls it
\n      — down: "Come here, sailor."<\/font><\/p>\n

Well, this would be one terrific sunset
\n but I’m at work. The sky’s great, it’s me
\n who’s restless. So I move toward that door:
\n Why not take a break? not for smokes but for eyes.<\/font><\/p>\n

The horizon isn’t prairie or the Pacific; it’s a low
\n long building. Above, long low clouds stretching
\n from power pole to power pole, cut by the roof.
\n The red sun lies behind, while above and around
\n      — an otherwise clear sky. My mind clears.<\/font><\/p>\n

The air low is whitish and as seconds, just seconds, pass
\n and my eyes go up, it gradates to ash then blue then ink
\n like a Bill Flanagan cemetery background. But not a picture.
\n It’s as real as that piercing half-moon over the Conoco yonder.<\/font><\/p>\n

It’s as real as my life. I’ll take any sunset now
\n even if it’s a sunset over Sam’s Wholesale Club.
\n Could kick myself for the years as a sunset snob,
\n for not abandoning the glow box and its keyboard.
\n      — Come on, it’s just five minutes.<\/font><\/p>\n

This started weeks ago. I move at 9 or 8 or 7.
\n Now, the smokers know to follow my eye.
\n Sunset over Sam’s isn’t Malibu on sight,
\n but I claim this sky just about every night.<\/font><\/p>\n

-30-<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sailor’s Delight, a poem Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Saturday, October 2, 2004. Sailor’s Delight ©2004 Ben S. Pollock I am no Pollyanna, or maybe I am. I’m not trying to see good even in the worst. Yet my standards are softer. After all I don’t want to be in that bad state again.      — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-body-home-street"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":76,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/03\/china-cups\/","url_meta":{"origin":70,"position":0},"title":"China cups","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 13, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock \u00a0 Saturday, March 13, 2004. Green tea from red China. Nice, but no one says \"red China\" anymore. -30-","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":75,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/03\/is-it-real-or-desenex\/","url_meta":{"origin":70,"position":1},"title":"Is it real, or Desenex?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 15, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"\u0005^q\u00c2\u00ac\u0005\b\u0015dt face=\"Courier New, Courier, mono\">Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Monday, March 15, 2004. Reality TV shows are not reality. Even close. Just think about them with a little deliberation, and it's obvious. Yet people watch them, and talk about them, as if they are. -30-","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":74,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/05\/the-medium-needs-a-massage\/","url_meta":{"origin":70,"position":2},"title":"The medium needs a massage","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock May 1, 2004. I keep starting funnier \"Bricks,\" but anger keeps cropping across the pad with ink, the typewriter (a royal Royal standard jettisoned in 1979 by the Fort Smith newspaper), this iBook keyboard -- the medium indeed does not matter. I'll settle for coherency,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technical Difficulties"","block_context":{"text":"Technical Difficulties","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/technical-difficulties\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/10\/library-orders-to-go\/","url_meta":{"origin":70,"position":3},"title":"Library orders to-go","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 20, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Wednesday, October 20, 2004. The new library building has been open only since the ninth, and I've been there three or four times a week since. Each time I intend to camp at a desk with a legal pad and some books yet never have.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":73,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/05\/half-empty-or-half-full\/","url_meta":{"origin":70,"position":4},"title":"Half empty or half full?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock May 3, 2004. For weeks I've been wondering about the new logo for my hometown's Walton Arts Center; it can be viewed here. The newspaper articles quoted several laudatory remarks about it. It obviously was professionally designed -- a circle of W's that also configure\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/09\/an-artistic-minyan\/","url_meta":{"origin":70,"position":5},"title":"An artistic minyan","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 21, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2004. Yes, it's taken most of the month to return to the iBook and these Bricks. It was getting futile. 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