Today I saw
a poet
panhandling poems
in a subway train,
subterranean
beneath
a bustling city
of flashing lights
Sandwich-boarded
between
a poem
& advertisement
, decrying
homelessness
Reading from
the scribbling prose
upon a page
in a composition
notebook,
Apologizing
that celebrity & fame
are not equated
quite the same
as is fortune & fame;
Thus, promising
to “pay it forward”
whenever life on Earth
improves,
He croons
in perfect Iambic pentameter
against
The roaring railing
wheels
against the steel
of Reality
& Life –
Against a will
Against the wind,
Against the word
Against the world.
JESÚS PAPOLETO MELÉNDEZ (“Papo”) is an award-winning New York-born poet who is recognized as one of the founders of the Nuyorican Movement. A playwright, teacher and activist, he has published several volumes of poetry: Casting Long Shadows (1970), Have You Seen Liberation (1971), Street Poetry & Other Poems (1972), Concertos On Market Street (1994); and the stage plays The Junkies Stole the Clock (New York Shakespeare Festival, 1974), and An Element of Art (El Porton Theatre Co., 1978). His latest book, Hey Yo! Yo Soy! 40 Years of Nuyorican Street Poetry, A Bilingual Edition, is comprised of his three previously published books from the 1970s. |
