A STREETCAR NAMED ASPIRE

A STREETCAR NAMED ASPIRE

Another old friend, Simon Perkins. asks if I could

Write about Social Kindness. He also works as a delivery

Driver and comes face to distant face with this truth,

For there are people out there who greet him each day

More than grateful; a secret class we’re aware of,

While Politicians continue to obfuscate and occlude.

A pensioner who can’t walk. A parent trapped inside

With their toddlers. Neighbours who had never spoken

Before, finding friendship across the self-protected

Fence, with charged talk. What passes for contact is all,

As society forms a new language, in which nothing much

Can be discussed, doing nothing, but where the simple

Movement of mouths become kissing,

Not of the careful air, but what’s small: the essential

Goodness in us, or Tennesse Williams’ particular

‘kindness of strangers.’ For while society often slanders,

The people within make a stand. This is what Simon

Believes. And this is what his experience tells him;

That this second Nature which can consume us all,

Dwarfs the bad. With this known, we’ll stand tall,

While remaining sat in our houses, waiting for the men

Like him and the women delivering hope and chance

With the jam. I hope he’s right. God, I do. Or if not

God, genteel spirit. Occult force, divine source,

Please make us all Blanche Dubois; not disillusioned,

Or mad but with an equal strain of reliance on the simple

Select through harsh seasons which ensures

That the warmth to spread and come can’t fall far.

In the week I write it’s a heat that burns the frame

We’re all trapped in. The colours run in the painting

And stain the waiting hand and the plate.

We seek a campaign of the calm, and in both

The political and artistic sense, fresh perspective,

As today, Italy commemorates Liberation

From that former regime chained by hate.

Mussolini squeezed them, with his cartoon pomp

And demeanour. His deceptive hand drew warped

Contours on that boot shaped state as he marched.

But today they will sing ‘Bella Ciao’ to ease the stings

They have suffered, as their banished streets

Rise to glory and their rousing souls’ colour dark.

So, perhaps social kindness can win. Rare as it is,

It wealds power. Even love has its problems,

But kindness and care form a faith. And this one

Is not blind. It is just too often passed over,

As a nation under oppression of a second sort,

Changes fate. Or tries to at least. As Simon drives

He looks for it. In the face of this new oppression,

From a virus foretold and as far as I can tell,

Unexplained, we see peoples need to belong

To something else that survives them;

The growing legacy of a movement that struggles

To resist each day’s pain. It stems from somewhere

Else beyond flesh, a wound that rips each real moment,

A scar we never thought would have marked us

Or keep us in blood, weighs us down. And so the uplift

That comes from the need to connect sets souls rising.

If Blanche was lost to saving and Benito to Hell,

Let fear drown in the imagined kisses to come

Across the Italian streets, with cars silenced.

As Simon P. drives his own one,

Peace and aspiration before him

While delivering hope

And (perhaps Italian)

Parma ham

To his town.

David Erdos April 25th 2020

For more poems from David Erdos visit The Corona Diaries collection 

David Erdos is an actor, writer, director with over 300 professional credits. He is a published poet, playwright, essayist and illustrator. He has lectured on all disciplines in theatre and film for leading performing arts colleges, schools and universities around the world. His books include EASY VERSES FOR DIFFICULT TIMES, THE SCAR ON THE CLOUD, OIL ON SILVER, NEWS FROM MARS, CHANGING PLACES WITH LIGHT (penniless press) and BYZANTIUM with the photographer Max Reeves. He is a contributing editor for The International Times and maker of documentaries all over the world. David’s work has been acclaimed by many leading figures including Harold Pinter, Heathcote Williams, Alan Moore, Andrew Kotting, Chris Petit and Iain Sinclair in whose recent book THE LAST LONDON, David features. He can be reached at David.erdos@sky.com.

David Erdos

©    David Erdos has asserted his moral rights as author of his work and has full copyright.