A THOUSAND NEEDLES
"Whatcha gotta do is skin em real slow.
A rabbit ain't no ear of corn, if you know what I mean."
I'm a little kid, not believin' I'm sittin'
on my haunches lookin' up at my uncle
holdin' this dead rabbit by the ears.
A cigarette dangles from the side of his mouth,
smoke twirlin' up ina his eye.
When he blinks an' jerks his head
the rabbit twitches. I don't wanna see this.
I wanna be back home, but I can't move
sorta like some dumb bunny caught in headlights.
He drags on the cigarette, blows more smoke in his face
then raises his arm, wipin' a sleeve
across his eye. "Like I was sayin' . . . ."
I tune him out. The sun is pingin' offa the blade
so sharp, it's like a thousand needles in my eye.
-NEW-
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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