rich quatrone | cheap tricks & four other poems

Cheap Tricks

some guys are different
with funny hats and flamboyant behavior
some guys win women this way
but not the best women
not even the better women
some guys are really different
from the inside out
they have no need for tricks
they have no need for trinkets
on their arms
or pointy suede boots
they have no need for tattoos
they have no need for
“six pack” stomachs
they have no need for any
of these superficial
signs that shout pathetically
“I am different! look at me!”
some men are themselves
completely from the soul
and they always get
real women

April Is The Foolish Month

how do we occupy our hearts
when our hearts are so damaged and hurt

i used to tell students who complained
of broken hearts your heart should be

broken every day by life; it’s a broken
life you have to be wary of

so occupy wall street, main street, fleet street,
drum beat, no heat, no food, no rent

occupy get bent, he went, you lent and
bucky dent, occupy the present

how do we occupy a broken heart
when hearts are broken by life itself

how do we occupy washington when
the place we live is bought and sold

how do we occupy the old who have
nothing to lend and see the end

America Is A Montrous Place

it has fulfilled its own worst
nightmare
since its founding this
nightmare has been here
yes, it spoke beautiful words
in its declaration of independence
and its constitution
but that’s all it did
speak words
meanwhile it enslaved then
and continues to enslave
it is a monster that feeds itself
and cannot stop feeding itself
it is blouted and about
to explode
this is the hell we’re
supposed to love in
this place of cruelty
and greed and violence
marriages in this place
reflect it
they sleep in their
ignorance
run in their deep fear
surround themselves
with lies
yet in all this there is
and always has been for
intelligent women and men
a chance for real love
for knowledge and education
for giving and sharing
for creating beauty
and happiness
a place of infinite generosity
and hope
this is what i know
this is what i seek with
you

All The Nights

we danced together at djais
a hundred nights a thousand songs
all the nights i’d put my arm around
you and feel your warm waist
all the nights i’d look into your
eyes and you’d smile
and our heads would be
together and your damp
hair would be on my lips
all the nights you’d sit
on the edge of the stage
and i’d give you a lap dance
i miss every second of it
even when i say i don’t
it’s too difficult to think that
we might not do all this
again

A Cock Or Two Or Three And Two Women For Me

it’s really funny, you see
the final destination of sex that’s free
no end to possibility
as if the body can empty
itself and join a higher humanity.
a cock or two or three
men plying you finding you digging
through every notion, an ocean of desire
enough to make you scream for more
a sacred whore the gods explore.
and when the men are gone
you and a woman to take me on
your juices flowing emotions spent
what’s left but my soul to rent?
until that moment we become one
the circle of flesh won’t be undone.

RICH QUATRONE is a poet, playwright, novelist living in Spring Lake, NJ. He co-founded PASSAIC REVIEW in 1979. The mag has had several incarnations, including Passaic Review Ezine which published some 1600 issues in the wake of the infamous September 11 till the invasion of Iraq. Rich produces Playwrights on the Rise at the Strand Theater in Lakewood, NJ.

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