{"id":123,"date":"2013-06-03T19:58:17","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T23:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/?p=123"},"modified":"2013-06-03T19:58:17","modified_gmt":"2013-06-03T23:58:17","slug":"brother-can-you-spare-a-dime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/?p=123","title":{"rendered":"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"},"content":{"rendered":"

10-25-12\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The prompt:\u00a0\u00a0 A poem\u00a0from Robert Zimmerman’s \u00a0From Where I Stand<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

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\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHey, buddy.\u201d<\/p>\n

I started.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t seen the man in the shadows of the doorway.\u00a0 It was a dark and wet evening, chilly as late fall can be.\u00a0 There was a hint of snow in the air, a feeling more than anything, that thin scent of winter anticipated.\u00a0 I had my shoulders hunched, head down into the collar of my long coat, intent on getting home.\u00a0 It was easy to miss the odd vagrant or two.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou talking to me?, I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u00a0 Can you help out a fella down on his luck?\u00a0 I ain\u2019t eaten in a couple of days, and there doesn\u2019t seem to be a Mission around these parts.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was tempted to walk on, but\u00a0 I had been in his shoes just a year or two ago.\u00a0 The war had hit me hard, and the demobilization was an abrupt shock.\u00a0 Others had gone back to school on the Bill, but I tried to go back to the factory.\u00a0 That lasted for just a couple of weeks, until the memories and visions started coming back.\u00a0 I pulled through.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould a square meal help?\u00a0 There\u2019s a diner the next block over.\u00a0 It\u2019s clean, and warm.\u00a0 I\u2019ll spring for supper, and you can get a bit drier.\u201d\u00a0 I felt flush next to my new friend, even though I knew it would be a little tight after a meal out.\u00a0 I knew what he was going through, and it would help me as much as him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure.\u00a0 That\u2019ll be swell.\u00a0 Name\u2019s Jimmy.\u00a0 What\u2019s yours?\u201d\u00a0 He swung into step beside me as we headed off.<\/p>\n

\u201cRobert John Alouicios Halligan.\u00a0 After the nuns.\u00a0 Sister Alouicious thought it would make a very nice Confirmation name.\u00a0 I think I was suckered.\u201d\u00a0 I laughed a bit at the memory, and my step lightened a bit as we walked.\u00a0 Jimmy was an enthusiastic guest, and began to regale me with stories of the street and the rail yard. \u00a0We turned the corner, and saw the diner ahead with its dingy light spilling out onto the sidewalk and a halo around it from the mist.\u00a0 We picked up steam at the thought of a warm place to sit.<\/p>\n

I waved Jimmy ahead of me as I opened the door.\u00a0 The cook looked up with a frown when he saw my companion, then a bit of confusion as I followed.\u00a0 It turned to resignation as we sat in a booth.<\/p>\n

The waitress slid off one of the stools, came over with her pad flipped open, and said \u201cWhat\u2019ll yiz have?\u201d in a slurry kind of way.<\/p>\n

I looked up and smiled at her.\u00a0 \u201cCoffee, and two Blue Plate Specials, please.\u201d<\/p>\n

She turned to grab a couple of sturdy mugs, and shouted out \u201cHey Ernie, two blue plates!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ernie poked his head out the window, and apparently hadn\u2019t gotten over the surlies.\u00a0 He scowled as though we didn\u2019t rate a Blue Plate Special, pulled back into the kitchen and started to clatter things around.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, Jimmy, what\u2019s the plan?<\/p>\n

He looked sheepishly at me.\u00a0 \u201cNo plan, Bob.\u00a0 I\u2019m just living.\u201d<\/p>\n

I knew exactly where he was.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10-25-12\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The prompt:\u00a0\u00a0 A poem\u00a0from Robert Zimmerman’s \u00a0From Where I Stand \u00a0 \u201cHey, buddy.\u201d I started.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t seen the man in the shadows of the doorway.\u00a0 It was a dark and wet evening, chilly as late fall can be.\u00a0 There was a hint of snow in the air, a feeling more than anything, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-promptedwriting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mainlyprompts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}