Bad Crowd - a poem by Corey Weinstein - Vistas & Byways Review

1968
Poetry

Bad Crowd
by Corey Weinstein

I’m glad I fell in with a bad crowd,
Being so good. Too good. Good for what? ‘til then.
Things have been quite different since,
Life changed, was cloud of confusion and despair,
Then shown a certain clarity of how life might actually work.
New family, ties bound to become friendships lasting fifty years.

And the bad crowd always with twists and surprises,
My plans, what plans? The world had plans and demands, and others,
1971 I objected conscientiously and then just refused to heed the call,
Seemed like the normal thing to do at the time, and it was!
Me and my bunch, thousands, never got arrested, too many of us.

Living well doesn’t require plenty, the world seen in human terms,
Living well doesn’t require plenty, cheap gas from a poisoned land,
Living well doesn’t require plenty, cheap imports from impoverished labor,
Living well doesn’t require plenty, at least not plenty of dough, ‘til now.

My soul is filled more than my pocket. Love, purpose, even joy.
First I lost my love to another. He stole her heart, or at least her lust.
I went to numb and she home to her lovely family, parents waiting.
But in the unexpected unknown and unrepentant I found my new love,
She a delight, a gleaming smile appeared as the blue cloud parted,
Together for 39 years, still holding hands, hands of helping, soothing.

Saints and sinners everywhere, tattoo teardrops across the glass,
Nicknames of the underclass, the underworld, the underbelly.
42 years on the roads to the concrete and steel,
The worst of the bad crowd behind those bars, special bars, underground,
The needy, the helpless, the hopeless, the brilliant,
The dreamers, the heroes, the zeros, the schemers.
Teachers of patience and courage, folly and savvy,
Cruelty, kindness and just plain weird shit, and lots of bravado.

Those days are done, and the bad crowd just keeps on giving,
We oddballs and misfits, nerds and queers are always the best,
We’ve got something to say; thinkers, doers, from our depths,
Let’s face it, we’ve got nothing else, so we just have to be ourselves.

About Corey weinstein
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Corey Weinstein is a retired physician. He is a long-time hobbyist musician, poet, songwriter and clarinet player. He has published two vanity CDs of original music largely inspired by the Klezmer and Yiddish stage musical traditions and led Umzist, a Klezmer band playing benefits for Jewish elders for more than a decade. He wrote and performed at various venues a singspiel, Erased: Babi Yar, the SS and Me to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the massacre at Babi Yar. He regularly plays clarinet in the Or Shalom Jewish Community choir, for his neighborhood jazz band, The Jamberries, and to assist at Shabbat services at Rhoda Goldman Plaza, as well as any chamber music group he can find. He lives in the Ingleside of San Francisco with his wife of 37 years, Pat Skala.