Italian Loyal/ Mother Nature
Italian loyal.
Can work at Shop Rite for years
and never step foot
in a Stop-n-Shop.
Shop Rite put food in their kid’s
mouth, reciprocate.
I know a guy who
worked at Pepsi for ten years.
One day his kid brought
a Coke in his house.
So, he made him sit outside.
Coke could not enter.
That is loyalty.
Sundays are cherished deeply.
I know a guy who
told his boss to go
fuck himself because he was
forced to work Sundays.
Family is always.
Dinner is a tradition.
Sunday Tradition.
My great grandfather
off the boat called Hoboken
home. He built a church
on a small side street.
The church closed after he died.
My grandfather hates
his father, but he
still drives past the church every
Sunday. Tips his hat.
Frank Sintra beat
my grandpa up in school twice.
He still bought records.
Much more than slick backed
greasy hair and gold crosses.
More than carbs and sauce.
Renga
Leaves look like a cig
smothered under sneakers when
you finished a drag.
Fall rains the guts of
Marlboro Reds. Winter sucks.
Snow turns black like
the blood from a coke
head’s septum from sniffing snow.
Hot head like baldness
at the beach. Summer
springs when slush melts and mud forms.
Mother Nature. Gross.
(2014)
