HARD TIMES
Who ain't got it hard, huh?
You tell me that.
An' don't go talkin' 'bout them jerks
ona TV or ina scandal sheet,
they's probably so twisted
Houdini couldn't undo what they done
to theirselves an' god knows who else.
I'm talkin' about openin' your eyes
an' just seein' what's in fronta you.
It's a sorry lot in my neighborhood.
An' the only lucky ones are dead.
BIG FAMILY
There's families an' then there's families.
Sure, I got brothers an' sisters
an' a mother still livin' an' I got kids
maybe. Maybe I usta be married.
What does that mean anyway, huh?
Anyway, my guess is that we all is
connected, 'cept it's ina way
no one understands. Forget about
the fightin' an' arguin' an' a lotta cold shoulder.
Get rid of all them blocks you got.
Get naked an' let that soft touch come.
Stashu Kapinski Strikes Out
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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.
From 1986-1996, Joseph Lisowski was Professor of English at The University of the Virgin Islands; he is now teaching at Elizabeth City State University. His detective fiction novel, LOOKING FOR LISA, has just been published by Fiction Works |
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