Thursday, February 25, 2016

Wayne F. Burke- Three Poems


Wayne F. Burke has published two volumes of poetry with Bareback Press: WORDS THAT BURN (2013) and DICKHEAD (2015), and has a third volume, KNUCKLE SANDWICHES, forthcoming (5/16).



Vane

Mr. Gootay, from India
owned a funky restaurant
on the backside of Harvard Square
in Cambridge, Mass. where
I worked as fry cook
putting out breakfast
and lunch
and sweating my hangovers
off
over a sizzling grill
that baked my brain
and made me thirsty again
and one night after work
in a bar in Central square,
where Harvard does not live,
I got the shit beat out of me
and the next day
went to work wearing
mirror sunglasses and
band-aids on my face
and Mr. Gootay asked
"what happened, Vane?"
and I said "I walked into a door,"
and Mr. Gootay
standing with hands behind his back
and wearing a white jacket that
made him look like a doctor,
said
"unbeLEAVEable!"



Punk Fight

the screaming starts
and grows in volume
as two punks get ready
to duke it out;
one punk wings
round-house rights
the other dances
with fists upheld
like John L. Sullivan.
The fight goes on and on
like a bad play;
a girl is called "crack whore"
a guy "bitch"
and John L. Sullivan
spits on his opponent.
The cops are eating doughnuts
or else playing cards
in the station;
a crowd grows to two dozen,
all hoping for a better show
or a quicker end
and when a moon-faced cop shows
the punks split
and the cop
sweating through his shirt
asks
what I'd seen
and I say "nothing"
but he gets an earful from
the fat girl
working at the hot dog stand.



spirit

the spirit flew in
through the window
and went down my
gullet:
I love it
it tells me that
there is hope
that there is a future--
but the night, I said to the spirit
it is so dark
and I am all alone;
and the spirit said that
it knew all about
the dark and
the lone,
and did not think much
of either.
 
 

2 comments:

  1. How Harvard Square has changed and you reflecting on it
    with bravado!

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    Replies
    1. they murdered Harvard Square--that horrible Grand Canyon of a new subway station, ugh...used to be human; human-scaled anyway...I have another 'Harvard Square' poem in my new book KNUCKLE SANDWICHES, out 5/16, check it out B.Z., thanks for comment too.

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