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Miscellaneous Tue Jul 19 2011
Poetry on Demand
At this Saturday's Wicker Park Fest, two of the Poetry Brothel poets, Dave Landsberger and Kathleen Rooney, will provide poetry on demand from 2pm-9pm at the Chamber of Commerce Booth. Tell them your topic of choice, and they will type out a fresh, related poem on their vintage typewriter. Donations of $5 are suggested, though pay-what-you-can is also accepted. All proceeds will benefit the after-school program 826CHI (The Boring Store) and Rose Metal Press. Read on below for sample poems from Landsberger and Rooney.
WICKER PARK by Dave Landsberger
Men cheat at chess and chug Big Gulps
as children run shirtless to stranger's puppies.
Fat guys on fat softball teams watch skinny dudes
tai-chi into Derrick Rose--the shoes are insults,
the sockless are gods here. O, to be barefoot,
eating a sandwich, under a tree, hopefully no one's Labrador
will release their morning upon me. And look, the sun,
it bombasts above the fountain as if to draw a straight line:
a pyramid, an ancient geyser of goats, gargoyles, a pizza from above .
Even hipsters cannot reappropriate such wonder.
Nor the drunken centrifuge of the Blue Line,
the sad-looking babes in leggings, the elderly who sit and watch,
holding hands. The only force that can steal it away is the winter,
and even then, the poinsettias win. Their roots, barefoot.
SIX-WAY INTERSECTION: A CINQUAIN by Kathleen Rooney
Across
The street, a girl
Just threw her cellphone at
A bus. Man--where can we get a
Taco?
