Cafe Centro on Tib Street
is a clique place
slap-bang
between two of the hard-nosed
heavy drinking
pubs
in Manchester
But it seems to fit
there, well
the clique
like to mingle
with the back-slappin', nose-runnin-
gi' us 'nother pint John crowd
A collection of bingers and hard-hitting
close to detox
drinkers
Yet, this street breathes life
its eclectic clientelle dally and dance
through the long days and nights
The picture framing shop next door
has been there years!
(always wondered if it's a family business)
The mad pet shop across the way
selling parrots and budgies
& things that crawl
and bump in the night
Its dusty window doesn't seem to have been cleaned
in the thirty years I have walked
up and down
Tib street, with its clique bars, oddities of shops
(including several sex shops)
which all fit together like a surreal jigsaw
And there sits Cafe Centro
with big picture windows
glaringly voyeuristic
People sip their bought-in
German beers
and watch the mad world
Flash by
with sex, budgies, pictures,old soul music
& the best fish and chips to eat, in Manchester
collecting in their heads
sepia memories for them to keep-
safe
And she waits quietly
in her finery
The dysfunctional "family" that is
Tib Street
Author notes
More Manchester meanders...
Written August 13th, 2005
In a list
What did you think
Comments
1 - 17 of 17
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Dysfunctional maybe ... but colorful and bright and different
Wow, you love your home, huh? 
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excellent~
So atmospheric and full of engery sights and sounds
I will never get to see it personally but I have through your eyes
And that's what reading is all about to see places you have never been
Thank you for taking me on this wonderful wide tour of yours sis
Love n hugs
Susan~~~
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well thank you for that trip.it makes manchester even more real to me.it was like getting a private tour along the streets learning the history of the place.it was brought to life for me,a person who has only venture out of america about twice.i can easily say that to get to see this particular sight would make traveling worthwhile.your words and the whole structure of this was a delight.
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awww thankyou Nik
many thanks my friend
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These poems must be put together and become classic one day. They will be like social history document.
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hehheh thanks Travis..
its a haunt we use from work as it's literally on our doorstep so to speak.. and it's great to watch the mad people go by..
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this is wonderful. I love the atmosphere and imagery, and how you allow me to see cafe centro, feel like I've visited it myself. I love going into a friend's neighborhood and glimpsing a little sllice of their day-to-day life. that's what this poem does for me.
great descriptions...the mad pet shop across the way selling parrots...the dusty window and the big picture windows that are glaringly voyeristic...the best fish and chips...sepia memories. this is all rich stuff! wonderful writing!
~travis
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I'm not sure.. next time I pass next week ..I'll have a good look and let you know.. hehehheh
trust you..
and yeah.. you can have a pint of Boddies for that one.. -
you couldn't have just said "parakeet", now, could ya nora?
i wonder what it would be like to use a parakeet instead of a gerbil. i'll have to ask richard gere next time i see him.
so did compo earn a pint for doin' his own research?
and does that sign in the window really say "hoegaarden"? me thinks compo would enjoy a walk through one of those.
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hehhehehe
Budgerigar!!! hahhaha a budgie.. hehehhe
look it up next time ya lazy woolly mammouth!!!
and how dare you!!! I am north of Watford.. do not associate us Northeners with those Southern jessies!!! hahahhahaha
hell no
on the 8th day.. God created Manchester and She did a fine job -
holy crap. i thought i landed in an episode of "eastenders".
lol
excellent write, nurse ratchett. but what the hell is a budgie? i've come across the term before, but of course, i'm too lazy to look it up. is that "English" english for gerbil or something?
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It's wonderfulness Gills^^
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OH! I like this one. This is a peek into something that is familiar...yet lacking the cracked gloss veneer of newness we have here on the West coast of the US...the players are all the same I suppose...in character...but with a patina of age and more settled in their roles.
Thank you for the glimpse of somewhere I'll probably never see -- but can easily stroll in my mind. -
thankyou hun
I remember as a child, walking up Tib Street with my Mum,because her favourite haberdashery is on Tib Street... and even then I used to perplex at how weird it was and how quick my Mum would walk past the sex shops, coughing to herself
hehehehhehe
but many thanks hun for a wonderful comment -
what a wonderful mosaic of life this is.. the oddity of how an area can scream as if it should be at odds with itself.. yet work in some strange function we couldn't begin to mimic if we tried..
There are places here with coffee shops/bistro/bars in the middle of what seems bizzare .. ..imported beers in areas where you'd wonder if the locals knew what an imported beer was.. and it always fascinates me.. that the chemistry of such places works the way it does..
the world is mad indeed, and you've captured a slice of it ..beautifully.. in my opinion..
~~Lisa/whims -
thankyou
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i like it
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