(Thanks to Burma Shave Slogans, Senior -Site , NPR and Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design)
Was twittering away when I began recollecting rides in my grandfather’s car as we drove to Crisfield over Maryland roadways. He had picked me up at the Grayhound station in Princess Anne. I recall the smell of Norfolk pine in the air and the sound of passing traffic. No closed windows in those days. No air-conditioning.
Speed and my grandfather carrying me from Philadelphia and the James Street rush of traffic to my grandparent’s house where the sounds that kept me awake at night were frogs and crickets. Pop Pop held onto that steering wheel and I watched as the trees flew by. And read out loud the Burma Shave signs.
Spring
Has sprung
The grass has riz
Where last year’s
Careless drivers isBurma-Shave
The wolf
Is shaved
So neat and trim
Red Riding Hood
Is chasing him
And together louder , laughing:
Burma-Shave
Heck, in retrospect, that’s what I call action poetry. Poetry in motion and with delight. Speed and then the cut off – the sudden stop. Your mind stops your body continues to fly along. Exhilarating.
And not unlike a Twitter ride. Think of Twitter as a car you ride. Most posts aren’t inclusive of the speed of dissipation. They spot, like ink drops. One dot in the single frame of time. No stopping for that. Posts rush by. But here the lines link across and over time and the punch line never rhymes. It’s just … expected! Anticipated!
Burma-Shave offers more than roadster fun. Today? Maybe that’s why I was lost in recollection. Twittering, moving along. These poems have so much truth even in the Twitter-Mobile:
Don’t stick
Your elbow
Out so far
It might go home
In another carBurma-Shave
My eyes deceived me and I read: “Twittering in my Own Tweet Time.” And I thought, what’s this about, you Tweet with pulsation and action, not slowly and drawn out. And when I got to the site I was delighted and realized I had read it wrong! I guess I was driving too fast on the twiterway. I LOVE the elbow ending. Wonder what the twitter equivalent is? Sticking your nose out? Your neck out? Makes me go Hmmmmmm…..