Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Looks Like 9th and Hennepin

Taken at the corner of Market and Pennsylvania...

This is best if viewed large...
This shot reminds me much of the Tom Waits song 9th and Hennepin:
Well it's Ninth and Hennepin
All the doughnuts have names that sound like prostitutes
And the moon's teeth marks are on the sky
Like a tarp thrown all over this
And the broken umbrellas like dead birds
And the steam comes out of the grill
Like the whole goddamn town's ready to blow...
And the bricks are all scarred with jailhouse tattoos
And everyone is behaving like dogs
And the horses are coming down Violin Road
And Dutch is dead on his feet
And all the rooms they smell like diesel
And you take on the dreams of the ones who have slept here
And I'm lost in the window, and I hide in the stairway
And I hang in the curtain, and I sleep in your hat...
And no one brings anything small into a bar around here
They all started out with bad directions
And the girl behind the counter has a tattooed tear
One for every year he's away, she said
Such a crumbling beauty, ah
There's nothing wrong with her that a hundred dollars won't fix
She has that razor sadness that only gets worse
With the clang and the thunder of the Southern Pacific going by
And the clock ticks out like a dripping faucet
til you're full of rag water and bitters and blue ruin
And you spill out over the side to anyone who will listen...
And I've seen it all, I've seen it all
Through the yellow windows of the evening train...

2 comments:

AmericanDirt said...

Great observation! If only Mr. Waits had been able to take a whiff of our sewer systems--I'm sure he would have found additional poetic opportunities there.

Unknown said...

Lol, I can just imagine it now...

'And the intoxication of hydrogen sulfide makes me feel at one with this town'