Gladiator One For The Mick
In Memory of Alfred Schweitzman
The banging of the black iron fence
Recalls my childhood. On my toes looking into
The bathroom mirror. The part
Must be straight.
Cowboy boots, new Levi Jeans,
Cowboy hat: I was ready for action.
Downstairs no one listens.
Outside the air cold pure,
Like it was for the dinosaurs.
My club, a stick, I use to rattle
The iron fence. My hair blows in the wind.
Little boy with your shiny brown
Hair I hear you crying.
I’ll be good; I’ll be good God.
The rain came and it bubbled in
The gutter. The bubbling
No more rain, too bad.
My mother not once
Comes to say goodnight;
That’s dad’s job.
The night the aerie hum begins.
Who are those heads floating out
Of the locked closet?
Hearing voices I crawl.
Outside my sisters room. I
Watch through a mirror.
My mother studies my sister
At three A.M. telling her men
Only want sex.
Talking props.
Now my mother waits for me at the
Door. I shrink.
The gatling stick on the iron fence
Accompanies me. Leaves are falling,
I kick them.
Meeting your friends helps.
Alfie yelling out his window
He’ll be down. Shelly’s there and Joel
And Nat and Allen : our rogue family.
Each has his own guiding star.
The Mick is pulling me to
The schoolyard.
The Mick’s speed, strength:
A river of power. He knows
The taping ritual. He saviors
The batting box where the pain leaves.
The Mick’s beatific smile
Never reveals his injuries;
Thousands roar. Pain no more.
Spartacus with a bat.
The boy saw it like the moon.
He smacked it with his bat.
A whirlwind of power could change everything.
Gladiators never die.
My troop is waiting for me,
And the staccato of the iron fence.