Ballad of the Red Bag Man by Kirk Alex
Blue collar free verse without the fakery & pretentious bullsh*t.
Won't find any of that bogus/tough-to-discern rhyming crap here that way too often is squeezed out
by certain academics with the cushy gig to impress their white collar pals. Guess what? Most of us
have no use for it. Scream it from the gut, or else don't bother. Better yet, flush it.
The author has been a cabbie/factory worker/warehouse shipping clerk/bread delivery driver/plant
nursery flunky/printshop gofer/meat plant packer/shelf stocker/jackhammer operator—to mention a
few jobs he's toiled through over the years in order to subsidize the writing. It's called paying dues.
Hand-to-mouth. It goes on. Wage slaves. Millions of us. Get it.
This is for readers who relate to writers like Bukowski/Louis- Ferdinand Céline/Knut Hamsun/Nelson
Algren/Eddie Bunker/Derek Raymond/Jim Thompson/John O'Brien/James M. Cain/Horace McCoy/
Dan Fante, Chester Himes, Clarence Cooper, Jr., Donald Goines, et al, who nailed it raw & real
without the convoluted agenda & word trickery.
Kirk Alex is also the author of Blood, Sweat & Chump Change — L.A. Taxi Tales & Vignettes; Lustmost:
Anatomy of a Serial Butcher; the Edgar "Doc" Holiday L.A. Private Eye series, the Chance "Cash" Register
Working Stiff series, and a few other novels & short stories.