MEETIN' AN OLD FLAME
She don't wear that red dress
no more. No high heel sneakers.
No silk stockings. No garter belt.
She puts ona girdle, balloon dresses,
an' them duck feet shoes,
so's nobody don't think
her heels is round any more.
I stop her ona street--
"Is that you? Is that You?"
She looks scared, grabs her purse.
Here come the mace, I think.
"Whoa, whoa, it's me," I says.
"Stashu" she asks. I kinda smile.
She lets one loose an' tugs.
I hear rubber snap.
Never mind the smell.
"Oh you," she says an' pulls
a fistfull of cookies outa her purse.
Shoves about twenty ina her mouth,
not offerin' me one.
"Nice seein' ya," she says.
An' waddles away.
ALONG FOR THE RIDE
If I was a young man,
I'd go out to the highway south,
hold a sign sayin', "Victim."
How far you think I'd get?
Without abuse? No rides
from truckers, I tell you.
Somebody would pick me up.
Sure, there'd be talk--
who ain't interested in tellin' their story?
I mean the driver. Maybe one'll
ask about me, fake me out
into believin' this world
ain't about him.
I'll tell them there ain't no story.
You're already where you're goin'.
I'm just along for the ride.
Stashus from the unpublished collection, STASHU UNDONE
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Stashu Kapinski, the guy who wrote these poems, is a sometime bum living in my skin. He doesn't get out much, but when you hear (and smell) him, you know he's noone else. He's pissed about a lot of things--being out of work for so long, the steel mills in Pittsburgh closing down, getting old, the price of beer, you name it. But he hasn't given up. There are still moments when he feels like the King of Polish Hill.
After 10 years as Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, Joseph Lisowski is now teaching at Mercyhurst College North East along the shores of Lake Erie. If you look real hard, you can find him sticking on the web in spots like Thunder Sandwich, Niederngasse, Serpentine, Wired Art for Wired Hearts, Born Magazine, The Isle Review, Free Zone Quarterly, etc.
poetry editor New Works Review |
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