The Dancing Girls Have All Gone Home

By Al Ferber

The dancing girls have all gone home from the dance halls from the footlights from the red lights from the blue lights from the dim lights from the corners from the alleys from the rent by the hour rooms from the cops the pimps the dealers the rapists the beatings the ERs the johns the marks the glamor of the graveyard shift.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664195165

Al Ferber

Al Ferber a septuagenerian going on 13. Born. Regrettably… A North Philly kid. Survived education at Temple U., Penn State, Villanova U. Alcoholic 30 years. Sober 23 years. Indenture servant to Catherine the Great 34 years. Learned to love and appreciate cats and one dog. Authored 30 books of poems, 2 novels, 3 chap books. Poems in Magazines in U.S., England, Scotland, France. Still alive, on the downward path of the sliding board, as of this writing. An undocumented alien in the world. Resides Ocean City, NJ surrounded by water with Cathi, Luna, Mitzi, and Opal. So there.

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Copyright © 2021 by Al Ferber.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 10/19/2021

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

834565

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Dedicated To Cathi

Introduction

What Else Is Mine

Broken Threads

Finish Line

Lotus Blossom

Women

El Salvador

I Dated A Speed Freak

The Butcher’s Wife

Over & Through

The Fences

Dancing Girls

Youthful Tureen

Opaque

If We Didn’t

Have A Soul

What We Really Need

Street Lamps

Shadow Mix

The Gates Of Hell

The Corner Song

Erotica Jong

Hips & Curves

Ladies Of The Night

We Want Touchdowns

Revere

The Sounds Of Silence

Operatic

Does It Work ?

It Am What It Be

Three Cruel Nights

- Installment #

1 Xxx Rated

Three Cruel Nights

- Installment #

2 Xxx Rated

Three Cruel Nights

- Installment #

3 Xxx Rated

Broken Down City

One More Zip

Back To The Street Life

She Fell Down In

The Garden

Another One

Bites The Dust

Marriage Of

Heaven & Hell

Drunk Like Me

I Got A Woman

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Cover photo (with permission) by Devyn Lutton

Introduction by Herb Martin

Many of these words first appeared in Mangle-zine.

Reproduced here with my permission. Al Ferber, editor

and publisher.

DEDICATED TO CATHI

my wife

higher power

honey bunny

best friend

gate keeper

sparring partner

soul sacrificer

multi tasker

and benefactor

crossword

jig saw

and human

puzzle wizard !!!

INTRODUCTION

…a long, seemingly desolate hospital hallway…all mint green

and cream tile walls…at the end a panic door slightly open…

a disheveled Gus sitting bent over on the concrete loading

platform…he has looked through all the wire criss crossed

windows in all the door windows in all the rooms…the drunks

the addicts are there…their faces desperately against the

windows but not a sound…a sighting…a scream or a

whimper…just hooded eyes scanning, searching for any sign

of life…any

sign of the dancing girls…

Herb Martin, artist, educator

this is my alley

these are my

garbage cans

these are my

sagging fences

that is my house

where i was shaped

these are my

crack whores

this is my graffiti

this is my piss

puddle

these are my

hucksters

with horse drawn

carts

this is my nightmare

do not enter

i am in possession

of everything

i own nothing

i have stolen

the moon

on an infinite

number of