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E. Michael Desilets - 3


Heartless Tom the Gangster

​He can take
or leave the ladies
looks good in a hat
the brim
taking away his eyes
when he’s done thinking
about whatever
lies before him
life
death
an empty glass.
 
An ordinary man
like no other
impeccable
at funerals and wakes
undiminished by loss
or the slow sweet savoring
of his own swagger
he leaves us behind
to watch the credits
rosary in his pocket
purgatory in his chest
hell in his hands.
​

When we returned

A Mary Carton 45
“No One To Welcome Me Home”
was on the turntable
but the record player
was unplugged and Peg
was eight miles away
in the Union ICU.
 
We might have tossed it
into that Sunshine Dairy crate
with the Deans and the Bings
and the Mitch Millers
and somebody likely
bought it for a quarter
at the yard sale.
 
Whatever we did
it ended up gone.
Right now it seems
we kept all the wrong things.

Picture

E. Michael Desilets Profile
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Sam's Shanty

Samantha was mad
for sea shanties
her mind forever wrapped
in oilskins and fishnets
 
so Malcolm kept
an interminable cache
in his pantry
            bedroom
            backpack
            sports utility vehicle
            fern-lined creel
on the off chance
Sam came unexpectedly
as she often did
 
the ironically landlocked
lovers would rock the boat
all night long
stem to stern
Sam in her nautical niceties
getting her sea legs
at the first melodic mention
of a man going down
from Yarmouth
to Scarborough
‘til the yearning tide
cast them ashore
on the yawning dawn
where they’d linger lazily
in salty togetherness
nearly as drowned
as the poor old dog
on the Irish Rover

​
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Go to page 1 of E. Michael Desilets' poetry

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