by Matthew Peluso
Look at us!
Mask-wearing isolationists, plague survivors
Virtual reality dwellers, afraid of basic human interaction
Living in a world where Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head
Are deconstructed like Derrida on a bad identity politics trip
How Nick and Nora would mock us, rightly
Mugs . . . lummocks, they’d call us
They had to live life in a convoluted and impossible story-line
So incomprehensible that even Hammett’s denouements could only be ludicrous
No wonder they started the day with a whiskey or rye (booze, not bread)
And needed at least 30 or more of the same throughout the day
Before switching to endless cocktails and champagne later
With all the everchanging fall guys, saps and stool-pigeons
Being set-up, or beaten into false confessions by flat-foots
Eventually bumped-off by monosyllabic fat guys in double-breasted suits
To the eternal disappointment of some diminutive, sarcastic 80-lb broad
Quick of jaw, and with a smack or kick to get her point across
Bemoaning her falling (again) for such a stupid gorilla, ape or lug
Yet, no caving-in to yoga or lounge paints for those mouthy sisters
They were always perfectly made-up and coiffed, regardless of plot-surprises
Dolled up in formal evening gowns, furs and a bizarre assortment of hats
Whether in bed, or constantly sashaying around the hotel suite
Hosting impromptu parties with dozens of uninvited, disparate guests
Before heading out to the same club in every city, open all hours
That always had a 50-piece band fronted by some as-of-yet unfamous singer
Completely ignored by the couple thousand people jammed into the joint
Chain-smoking non-filter cigarettes and talking non-stop over each other
Until they hit the dance floor, cheek-to-cheek, but still wise-cracking to
Their tuxedo-wearing, pencil-thin mustached fellas with Brilliantine-slicked hair
Matthew Peluso is a civil rights attorney and poet based in Princeton, New Jersey. His poetry is inspired by the discriminated and marginalized people he represents. His poems have appeared in the Opiate Magazine, Roanoke Review, Waterways: Poetry In The Mainstream, the Wilderness House Literary Review and Stoneboat Literary Journal. Bill Mazza is a visual artist using chance, duration, and accumulation to reinterpret landscape as a relationship of people to their mediated environments, through painting, performance, and community-building collaborations.
Global Poemic 