Speak Easy
 

Speak Easy

I told her it was about a hundred years ago
that we met.
I swear we were the bees’ knees,
roaring in the twenties,
drinking up the places where they spoke easy,
and we never cared about a word they said.
Where nights were spent
under the holler of quick music,
quick feet
and our slow jazzy love.
We just were out of contact,
for those decades—
I told her, “Baby, I’m glad we’re back.”

I like this, but it seems a little forced to me. The references to the Jazz Age, I mean.

I'd have to agree. Just a little forced.

I have to admit, I think it's clever. I enjoyed it.

More of a reference to the time when everything was wild, out of control, and filled with lust. I wish I was alive during the prohibition; it sounds nuts.

It was nuts, in more ways than one. I mean, seriously, just look at organized crime at the time. I, honestly, would not have wanted to live in the prohibition era.

'Here comes Al!' , they'd say.

Well, the mafia sure got shit done. I find the prohibition was fascinating. Drinking booze made you sexier, and a criminal all at once. It was fantastic. We take booze for granted now, but it's freakin' amazing. I can't wait to get slammed like it's 1929.

The black sheep of the family, a great-great-great uncle or something was shot and killed by the police when he was caught rum running during prohibition.

I think the competition bribed the cops to get rid of him.

I like this poem. It's written in the spirit of the era. Mmm, slow jazzy love.

Although, technically, it was only 80 years ago, not a century. ;)

I wouldn't doubt it. That sounds like something that would've gone on at the time. Things like that are why I wouldn't want to live back then. It was a dangerous, corrupt time.

I'm unsure as to why so many people fantasize about living in the era of Prohibition. It just doesn't make sense.

First line: I told her it was about a hundred years ago

Also, it's closer to 90 years ago...2007 and all.

Total mayhem, sex, partying, could do can do and would do anything for booze, kill who you want if you work for the right people, etc. etc.

Very strange time. Plus, it must have been quite hilarious to laugh in the face of the police like they did.

I honestly don't think it's much crazier than today, it's just crazier in different ways. Plus, the people who were part of this madness were in the minority. I think today we romanticize our views of the past.

There is more to life than mayhem, sex, partying, and killing people. Quite a bit more, I must say.

Like most eras, the 1920's took a few years to start roaring an spilled into the next decade. Capone was imprisoned for tax evasion in 1932 and prohibition was repealed in 1933. Thus "about" 80 years is a more accurate timeframe.

Which would still be about a century. He didn't say "exactly 100 years ago" or anything like that. Not only that, but why are you arguing about this?

Because I'm old enough to have known people who lived through the era.

Super Sprite, this is meant as constructive criticism. Don't "date" your poem with specifics. Call it the last century, not about 100 years ago. Let's not argue historical accuracy when you captured the essence so well.

That, and a hundred years implies a more significant visual than eighty. A hundred years is dusty and black and white, in between a daguerrotype and sepia toned photograph; between Victorian buttoned collars and Mucha's art deco.

Eighty years is a lifetime, a hundred years is forever

Yes, you're already presupposing I think that's all life is about? Get the fuck out of here. You're going to be the first to know that I hate those things. It sure made life interesting though.

I knew it was closer to 80 years ago, but a hundred sounded better. Eighty years ago IS a life-time. This poem is about two people, and the narrator is essentially saying: "In our past life, we met, we died, and now we came back together again." A hundred years means they had probably already died in the past life.

Also, a hundred years ago means they MET when they were probably 10 or so, and spent their time together during the roaring twenties. You should analyze a little closer. How many babies do you know were in SPEAK EASIES? Come on! They were at least 21 according to the narrator.

"I told her it was about a hundred years ago
that we met."

Like it. Makes me want to wear fringe on the bottom of a short dress, and smoke a clove through a long holder, then try out my new dancin' shoes on the charleston.

It is the type of nostalgic storyline that makes people feel like they almost have those memories, just for a second.

Glamour has its place, in even the roughest reality.

One thing that was brought to my attention that I don't get. Is the narrator almost a hundred years old? Or is he just undying for some reason? Merely curious.

As I said earlier...it takes a little thought to understand what this means. Two lovers met in a past life, they lived their life during the roaring twenties and had some great times drinking, dancing, and loving. They spent all their time together, and the times really DIDN'T matter, only their presence mattered as seen in these lines:

drinking up the places where they spoke easy,
and we never cared about a word they said.

Then they were out of contact for a few decades (aka died), then met again and the narrator is glad they are back together again.

Reminds me of a old sign in one of our rehabbed dance halls here: "Please Charleston quietly"... You couldn't stop the energy of the era, but you could put up a front that you tried.

Also, the narrator did not name *when* he(?) was reciting, so the dates are irrelevant. But I do like the almost tactile gap between 100 years over 80. We all know someone aged 80, few of us know someone over a hundred- a hundred years seems ominious and lends a haunted, echo-y quality- somethign you see in photographs but which you cannot wholly relate.

You can hear the band, and teh feet on the floor in a rapture of movement; and you can hear the phonograph, the saxophone over the cracks in the needle, over the spinning, the sad sound of a lone female voice singing "Careless Love" and someone sitting alone.