Saturday 5 August 2023

Three Poems by Charles Rammelkamp

 



One Night on Second Avenue

 

Born in the boondocks, Lake Ann, Michigan,

I was in my early twenties in 1917

when I  revolutionized the burlesque show:

on a particularly steamy summer night

at the National Winter Garden Theater –

Minsky’s – corner of Second Avenue and Houston Street,

way up on the sixth floor,

I “accidentally” removed my bodice

before I walked offstage, introducing

what became known as the “striptease.”

 

I’d performed as a soubrette – a saucy maid –

in comedies at the Union Square Theater on Irving Place,

but this was my big break.

I went on the circuit – Baltimore, Buffalo, Cleveland –

with Barney Gerard’s “Follies of the Day,”

and by the time I was thirty

I’d developed my “Try to Get In” act,

where I stripped down

to just a banana covering my cooch –

which fell off, suggestively, as I exited the stage.

At the State and Lake Theater in Chicago,

I pulled papier-mâché cherries from between my legs,

threw them at the salivating dogs in the audience.

Mae Dix and her Chicago Harmonaders

performed to sell-out crowds all over the Midwest.

 

I like to think that poet, Hart Crane,

had me in mind after a National Winter Garden show

when he wrote, Outspoken buttocks in pink beads

in that poem, “Three Songs”:

And while legs waken salads in the brain

Hell yeah, that must have been me!

 


The Howl

 

My name alone a poem –

Mitzi Von Wolfgang, the German translation

of my real Italian surname Del Lupo –

the grand dame of Italian burlesque;

started the Burlesque School of Milano,

a city famous for La Scala,

the European capital of fashion and design.

 

Gypsy Charms, the Edinburgh stripper,

encouraged me  to start the school.

Angie Pontani and Jo “Boobs” Weldon

served as visiting tutors. The secret?

Create magic on stage!

 

The word “burlesque” comes from burlesco,

derived from the Italian burla –

a joke, ridicule, mockery.

As Miss Glitter Painkiller put it,

“It’s funny – burlesque, in a word!”

 

It’s a visual art form in the main –

classical and theatrical; so many styles:

classic cabaret, Las Vegas showgirl,

1930’s Berlin cabaret, French Can Can.

Opulent costumes and props, precise

in every detail and preparation.

 

I’ve performed at Le Salon Parisien and La Maison Milano,

shows revolving around bikers, rockabilly, tattoo.

I’m proud to have been on stage

with Eve La Plume, Cleo Viper, Scarlett Martini,

Jane Fischietto and dolly Lamour.

The Milan extraordinaire!

I’m from the wolves, for sure:

I howl with pleasure, flirt with class!

 


Jo Boobs

 

Commonly known as Jo Boobs –

a name I don’t find offensive –

I’m an activist, essayist and photographer

as well as a burlesque star.

But still I created my website,

G-Strings Forever, after I stopped

working in strip joints.

People kept saying the most offensive things

about strippers, right in front of me.

 

A pioneer of the neo-burlesque movement,

I stripped from 1980 to the mid-nineties

I don’t think I’m that beautiful,

but my self-confidence is off the charts.

My signature act? The Godzilla.

I’d strip from a monster costume

to a mashup of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Godzilla”

and sound clips from the original Godzilla movie.

I’m an absurdist, a surrealist and lover of glamor!

 

In 2003 I founded the New York School of Burlesque;

I’ve taught at Mitzi von Wolfgang’s

Milano School of Burlesque.

 

But you know what? Besides my degree

in Business Administration, I’ve done graduate work

in media ethics, and I’m an advocate

for the rights of sex workers and strippers.

 

Look me up – Jo Weldon; Jo Boobs Weldon.

I’m not going to blush.

That’s your problem.


Charles Rammelkamp is Prose Editor for BrickHouse Books in Baltimore. His latest poetry collection, A Magician Among the Spirits, poems about Harry Houdini, is a 2022 Blue Light Press Poetry winner and has just been published.Another poetry collection entitled Transcendence has also just been published by BlazeVOX Books. A collection of flash fiction, Presto!, will be published in 2023 by Bamboo Dart Press.


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