One Poem by Giulio Magrini

 

WHEN THE GOING TO DIE BLUES TRANSITIONS TO THE

GOING TO DIE ANYWAY RAG

They told you

You reached a certain age

Knowing better

A wizened nod

From the assembled onlookers

Growing as stumps on the streetcorners

Their glared and cornered peripherals

Noses pointed to the margins

Tracking your regressions

As you falter predictably

An exemplar to the dynamic

Of your devolution

You go through the motions

Biding your time

Until the next big thing

But nothing is on the horizon

No invitations were sent

No meetings are scheduled

And everything that must be done

Has been done or neglected

The question lingers in the air

What is the point and the purpose of you?

You see shadows and silhouettes

Apparitions of moist tight skin

You assailed the unforgiving storms

Not giving a damn with her

Grinning at terrors

They were trivialities to your conceit

Vulnerability was your embraced ally

Smoke stifles your flagging memory

Where the air no longer breezes but hushes

The memories pile unmercifully

Too much to keep orderly

And the chaos and confusion festers

And breeds well in an environment

Of cerebral clutter and noise

Clanging and banging thoughtlessly

Inside your head

The queues are fouled and the memories

Demolished and cracked

The reality of the last beat

Of the measure of your life has begun

We begin our final tune for the evening

The Going to Die Anyway Rag

Giulio Magrini started writing poetry in the early 1970’s. He has performed at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, and many other venues in Pittsburgh. Giulio has conducted poetry workshops in alternative high schools, prisons, drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, and hosted a radio show for local poets. The anthology of his poetry and flash fiction over the last fifty years, The Color of Dirt was published in September 2022 by Word Association Press. Copies are available through Amazon, but the author prefers interested parties for his book contact him directly through his email at giulio27@verizon.net As Giulio Magrini tells us, “We have put our hands in the dirt and sanctified each other.”