July 11, 2018

PRETZELS (Jersey City style)

Everybody’s got three names
and I can’t even remember one of yours.
Hey, kid, get away from that water,
 you don’t know where it’s been!

I’ve seen the hard-hats pass off
the rest of a half-eaten sandwich
to a homeless man on a bench.

I bought a pretzel once from a vendor here.
It was hard and stale
and seemed to have been cooked over damp cigarette butts.

I walked along breaking rock hard crusts
into crumbs of sorts that dripped to the ground
for pigeons and gulls to eat and follow me home.
If not homing pigeons – homeless pigeons?

After that pretzel, I wouldn’t buy a hard-boiled egg
from the afternoon vendor.
I think my personal papers should stoke the fire
under those pretzels – couldn’t be worse
and all you’ll have are the published works,
 no more, no less, no muss, no fuss,
no birds following you home
wondering what’s for supper?

 - By Anthony Buccino
Adapted from ONE MORNING IN JERSEY CITY
Copyright © 2010-2018 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. J. Owen Grundy Park, Jersey City, New Jersey.

QUEUE

Queue
Queue
Queue
Queue, people,
Queue to the right!
If you stand still
Queue to the right to go along for the ride
Queue people
TOURISTS (I say this with disdain)
TOURISTS (You cause me pain where the sun don’t shine!)
Queue to the right get out of my way!

Smarty Marty went to the party!
Me and little Billie have to go to work today.
Bye bye, Nicky, Bill, Christine, Will, Nick,
Jen Michelle, Hollister, Eric, Barnini,
can’t blame you for going
things might be better somewhere else
but I say bye-bye Jacquie, Gaston, A.J.,
Cynthia, Kathy, Deb, Kara.
I admit I shall miss seeing you
on my way from day to day.

The new people, I stopped learning their names
Don’t matter anymore, Jeeze,
 it seems like they leave
just as I start figuring who’s who.

- By Anthony Buccino
Adapted from ONE MORNING IN JERSEY CITY 
Copyright © 2010-2018 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. J. Owen Grundy Park, Jersey City, New Jersey.