Four Poems by John Yamrus

 

Paul

 

wore

shirts the colour of

old wedding bouquets.

 

his father

was the school janitor

and he (Paul) would get up

while it was still dark and help his father

wax the lanes at the bowling alley

which was in the first floor

of the school building

that housed grades

1 thru 8.

 

it was

the 1950s and

nobody thought twice

about putting kids to work early

 

and Paul’s father was no exception.

 

in the

summer,

Paul would

go out to the farms

and pick strawberries

for 25 cents an hour and

then he’d come home late in the day

and play baseball with us in

the school parking lot

before the bowlers

came in their cars

and we had to

call it quits

for the

night.

 

Paul wore

steel cleats on

the heels of his shoes

that clicked when he walked.

 

it was the

coolest thing i ever heard.

 

Paul

had blonde hair.

 

his father was a drunk

 

and

his mother

is lost to the memory of time.

he found her

 

far less

glamorous

 

and

far more extreme

 

than

any woman

he’d ever known.

 

he

was

attracted.

 

he

was

repelled.

 

and

he never

could figure out why.

 

her mouth

 

was a

ruined white flower.

 

she

had to

be 80 or more,

 

but

she stood there,

in the back of the room,

 

while i

read my poems

to a couple of dozen students

 

who only

looked tired and bored.

 

i wasn’t into it

and neither were they,

and all i could see was this mop

 

of

stringy

grey hair

 

and

a face that

kept urging me on.

Tina

 

was

allergic

to man-made sponges,

 

gentle

exfoliation

and a guy named Harold

 

who

managed to

constantly talk about Ayn Rand,

 

The Fountainhead

 

and Tina’s breasts,

 

none

of which

he fully appreciated

 

or truly understood.

John Yamrus - In a career spanning more than 50 years as a working writer, John Yamrus has published 35 books (29 volumes of poetry, 2 novels, 3 volumes of non-fiction and a children’s book). He has also had more than 3,000 poems published in magazines and anthologies around the world. A number of his books and poems are taught in college and university courses. He is widely considered to be a master of minimalism and the neo-noir in modern poetry. His latest books are TWENTY FOUR POEMS and SELECTED POEMS: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT. A second volume of his poetry was just released in Europe, translated by Fadil Bajraj..