Two Street, January First

poetry by Paul Siegell

football buffs               in Philadelphia’s aviaries vault the beer-can
casualties                     of another round of fumbled punt returns.

parking authority tyrants                              toy with every block possible
along Philadelphia’s                                     deliriousness of cobblestone.

such miserable hospital cafeteria coffee in Philadelphia’s dirty city snow.

searching for greater proof, old Bill Cosby impersonators
_                                _ gig in Philadelphia’s bakeries, analyzing
the antics                      of minuscule scoops of Schuylkill River.

soft-hot-pretzel vendors           rumble through Philadelphia’s hardhat zones
_                                             _for the new unusual to squirt on 2-for-1 sales.

tourists go all in          at the high stakes poker game of Pat, Geno, Jim
__                              _& Tony, just to see who has the fullest full house
in all Philadelphia.

_                 _but Oh, dem golden slippers—

ring a new one in! communities in costume! clubhouses of gusto!

Mockingbird Comics    cakewalk the up-the-street strut in Philadelphia’s
_                                  _classic laughter for rambunctious floating revelry.

snare drums herald        the String Band strum in Philadelphia’s spectacular
_                                  _of banjos flamboyant, saxophones and glockenspiels.

elated, Fancies and Fancy Brigades don silk and detonate in Philadelphia’s
_      _get-down goodness for a new calendar year of old family traditions.

“pomp and panoply! capped and caped! speckled and sequined!”

_       _an annual parade            of Auld Lang Syne-eyed celebrants: oh!
_                                              _them special Philadelphians—yes, when

the Mummers come, the city’s murder count fades away, back on down
_                                              _to zero.

PAUL SIEGELL is a product of 1977 and currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. He is the author of three books of poetry: wild life rifle fire (Otoliths Books, 2010), jambandbootleg (A-Head Publishing, 2009) and Poemergency Room (Otoliths Books, 2008). Trailers are yours for the YouTube-viewing [here], and reviews are yours for the Goodreads-reading [here]. Paul is a senior editor at Painted Bride Quarterly, and has contributed to American Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, Dark Sky Magazine, Rattle and many other fine journals. Kindly find more of Paul’s work at ReVeLeR @ eYeLeVeL.






An image from the annual Mummers parade in Philadelphia.

Tags: experimental, Front, Mummers, New Year, Paul Siegell, Philadelphia, Poetry, Two Street January First

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.