tuesday

men with gloves
leave your vision
as you submerge

on the platform
a group of diamond-eyed slicked-hair jacks
with oddly sculptured facial beards
converse in alien tongue

a large woman slams her handbag
into your elbow
your funny bone smarts
s’cuse me she utters and doesn’t look back
you decide not to forgive her

a sax blows just the other side of
a stairway somewhere announcing
a gush of hot steam which messes
a tie guy's hair
surprisingly he stops you
and attempts soliciting spare change

you cough up half
your hershey bar
and nothing more

a high school drop out spits repeatedly
at the tracks
a nun stands near perspiring
minds her business

an omen of air swirls down the corridor
like an unleashed doberman
when the rumble of train cars peg the volume meter
doors spread wide
you march through the threshold of
the spray-painted steel sausage link
along with the rest of humanity

a well-dressed elderly woman hands you
a fresh tulip and smiles
you nearly forget the stench of urine
until your next breath

you smirk
put your nose into a paperback
and hope the weatherman will be
wrong again

(first appeared in Third Lung Review)

 

check out dan's new book:

PAGAN SUPPER - Pudding House Publications.
• review by michael basinski •

Slipstream reviews with
michael baskinski:

• Number 20. 2000
• Number 21. 2001
• Number 22. 2002

Slipstream Press announces the winner of the 15th Annual Poetry Chapbook Competition with the release of WHAT LANGUAGE by J.P. Dancing Bear. The chap is filled with rich, honest, and well-crafted poems lifted from life experience which offer the reader fresh insights and lingering images. (40 pages; $7.00 from Slipstream, Box 2071, Niagara Falls NY 14301). Visit Slipstream Press for further information and details.

ALSO: Slipstream #22 is now available from the same address for $7.00. It features the poetry, fiction, and photography by 50 writers, poets, and artists including Liza Porter, Gerald Locklin, Lyn Lifshin, Robert Cooperman, Vincent Tortora, David Hernandez, Dan Sicoli, Catfish McDaris, Donna Michele Hill, Livio Farallo, David Chorlton, Norman J. Olsen, Serena Fusek, Dory Adams, Johnny Cordova, Sarah Freligh, and Martin Vest.