Different Slants

Seeing the World from a New Angle

Sirens of Regret…by Robert M. Katzman

Robert M. Katzman’s Amazing Story: www.differentslants.com/?p=355

© June 26, 2014

I can hear it far away

Weaving in and out

Sirens

Firetruck?

Better get outa the way

Wasn’t I painting something?

Mrs. Phillips, your boy has talent

You can tell that at seven?

Picking red strawberries under the Iowa sun

Pretty girl, blond hair spilling over her shoulders

Sirens coming…

In a barn

Up in a hayloft

Jenny, can I unbutton that button?

No!

Please

Please

Noooo…

Please

Yes!

 

John, college or painting

Can’t do both

Choose one

You want to be a starving artist?

No?

Accounting is the smart choice

I’ll send in the application

Sirens wailing…

Well, John

Welcome to the firm

Your office is over there

Sorry, no window yet

Mary will be your secretary

Pretty girl, Mary

Mary, look at the view!

I want to paint Cape Cod!

John, forget that

Billy is getting sand in his hair

Oil painting won’t pay for fixing our roof

Or Emily’s braces

Why do you persist?

Sirens…sweet soft Jenny…hay in our hair…sirens

Corner office, John

Finally got your window, eh?

Meeting new clients for lunch?

Looks like a few too many lunches

Nice watercolors on your wall

You painted them?

No! I don’t believe it!

When could you spare the time?

Mr. Phillips, I see a problem

You’re too heavy

Too many cigarettes

You work too many hours

Stress can kill you

You don’t look happy to me

Ever consider a hobby?

Painting, maybe?

Sirens, louder, closer

John, we made you partner

There’ll be more traveling now

Clients want to press the flesh

So first Rochester

Then Buffalo

Then Davenport

Springfield

Harrisburg

Moline…

John,

You look so pale

Why are you still working at midnight?

Is work all there is?

I’ll get you some water

I need new brushes

Jenny let me paint you

God, Jenny

You’re so beautiful

Wish we had more time!

Wish we had more time…

Wish we had more time…

Sirens so distant…fading away…

John?  John??  John!!!

 

 

Publishing News! 

Bob Katzman’s two new true Chicago books are now for sale, from him!
Vol. One: A Savage Heart  and Vol. Two: Fighting Words

Gritty, violent, friendship, classic American entrepreneurship love, death, heartbreak and the real dirt about surviving in a completely corrupt major city under the Chicago Machine. More history and about one man’s life than a person may imagine.

Please visit my new website: https://www.dontgoquietlypress.com
If a person doesn’t want to use PayPaI, I also have a PO Box & I ship anywhere in America.

Send me a money order with your return and contact info.
I will get your books to you within ten days.
Here’s complete information on how to buy my books:

Vol 1: A Savage Heart and Vol. 2: Fighting Words
My books weigh almost 2 pounds each, with about 525 pages each and there are a total together of 79 stories and story/poems.

Robert M. Katzman
Don’t Go Quietly Press
PO Box 44287
Racine, Wis. 53404-9998                                                                                                                    (262)752-3333, 8AM–7PM

Books cost $24.95 each, plus shipping

For: (1)$3.95; (2)$5.95; (3)$7.95; (4)$8.95 (5)$9.95;(6) $10.95

(7) $11.95; (8) $12.95; (9)$13.95 (10)$15.95 (15)$19.95

I am also for hire if anyone wants me to read my work and answer questions in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. Schools should call me for quantity discounts for 30 or more books. Also: businesses, bookstores, private organizations or churches and so on.

My Fighting Words Publishing Co. four original books, published between 2004 and 2007 are now out-of-print. I still have some left and will periodically offer them for sale on my new website.

 Twitter handle:bob_katzman

8 Comments »

Comment by Katrina THREET

July 5, 2014 @ 12:57 am

Better to do what you love than to die of unhappiness and stress. Doing what you love like playing all if the time, not working!

Comment by Judy

July 5, 2014 @ 9:42 am

Love this one, Bob!

Comment by Joy

July 6, 2014 @ 6:29 am

I love this one, too! Strong message!

Comment by Paul eisenbacher

July 22, 2014 @ 8:09 pm

Bob
It has been a long time since we talked. Please forgive me. Sometimes life is like your poem. We get sidetrack dealing with our daily issues but loose direction in what truly is important to us. That importance ,of course, is relative to each individual. Mine is the love of good friends like yourself. More time is probably what most people want, particularly as age sets upon us. To do the things we really want to do. What maybe we should have done earlier. In our lives there are constant crossroads that meander and intersect and we choose a path and follow it. Not to be too Taoist, I think we usually choose the right one. Thank you for your poems, thoughts, and friendship. They intersect my life. Paul

Comment by Louisa kaiserman

September 1, 2014 @ 12:45 pm

Wow! Like ‘Cats in the Cradle’.with a deeper, more human twist.

Comment by Jim Payne

November 30, 2017 @ 11:04 am

Bob, very good. It is an example of your moving poetry. I like how you have weaved the theme of regret through it and sounded it with the sirens. You are a poet.

Comment by Charlie Newman

November 30, 2017 @ 2:10 pm

Best I not start on work.
Really good piece, Bob.

Comment by Don Larson

December 2, 2017 @ 4:51 pm

Bob,

Very insightful.

Don

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