In the place of business lunches
where a dull sun rises to blind your
toothpaste brushed eyelids with its
red veins blowin’ tracks from
ballpoint hypodermic needles that
tickled your gut & scratched your
toes frozen by the light of the mid-
afternoon moon & closed the closet
door of your mind that kept you
informed of the escalator the priest
used when he baptized you with the last
rites . . .
“we are gathered here today to spit
out curses at this fool who up & died
on us & left us with all his debts &
blueface bill collectors & buried his
self with credit card suit
let us pray to god almighty that the
lottery ticket we found hidden in his
right shoe will hit the prize
in life & help us elevate & escalate
the cost of this funeral party”
nobody brought along a transister
portable radio to hear the score
of the basketball game being played
at the local neighborhood playlot
uptown at the bowery
so let’s hook up the portable t. v.
to the stolen car battery & watch
“as the world turns”
maybe the creep will be bored to life
& regain his claim to manhood
by facin’ off the man & collect
unemployment from the dope pushers
of factorias job & time clocks
& hero sandwishes & cheap cold wine
why am i bein’ so mean to this man
who lost his underwear at the
macdonald store & had them fed to him
as the chef’s main menu stew
man his shoes look good
“shit why he
ain’t gonna
give them no
use — the worms
will only abuse
the leather in
the laces”
everybody that didn’t know
him came today to pay their
final first impression respect
& steal from the collection box placed
on top of his toupee
“i’m glad they didn’t
take him to long island
long island is a very
traffic dangerous trip
brooklyn is a cheaper
bon voyager
la isla is too expensive”
unless we send him parcel post
& air mail stamped on his
forehead
go thru customs inspection
has anybody got a peanutbutter
& jelly sandwich left over from
the school hour lunch break
&
my heart aches for my partner
who left me all his dues to
collect from our cocaine dealer
who turns out to be a paid squealer
& send his friends in for dollars
man this is the longest five minutes
i ever spent let me make my inspection
& spend ten cents to call my only true friend
the connection . . .
(Miguel Pinero)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, Life Poems, World Poems, Light Poems, Place Poems, Education Poems, Business & Commerce Poems, Cooking Poems, Basketball PoemsBased on Keywords: lottery, menu, portable, collectors, cocaine, lunches, toupee, escalator, pushers, uptown, toothpaste