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.