Mugs

so it’s a sunny saturday
& I’m reading Todd Moore
(Dillinger as a pre-Bogart Bogart)
& I’m drinking Moka Java
from the tan mug with blue lines
that got me thru Kent ayems
& I’m wondering how
the thing we drink from
shares a word meaning face

so I throw Moore on the floor
& get out my college Webster’s
mug n. 1. a heavy drinking cup
of earthenware … formerly often ornamented
with a human face

& I remember Moore lining up
Cagney beside Bogart
& I can’t think of Cagney
w/o thinking of grapefruit
Cagney was a thug with a mug
who pushd that grapefruit
into Mae Clarke’s face
beauties had faces thugs mugs
& I remember 58 years after that scene
seeing Mae Clarke in Beverly Hills
even as an old lady
she had a face

& I once saw Cagney
in that same place
even as an old man
he was a thug with a mug

Moore shoots words
it’s a sunny saturday
& he hit me in the face
just like that grapefruit
except you can’t wash off
what a word does

Much more on Alex Gildzen and his books can be found by clicking here…