August 2000
Letter 10
Son of the Big Shoulders


Careening into the cricket-laced dawn.
Into the Midwest August Bourgeoisie
dawn. Into the sticky, no-shirt
dawn. The beer-less, half-stained
waxing-moon dawn. The city summer
unkempt and memory-laced
                                   dawn.


Oh Chicago, city what got
the big shoulders. City w/
a chip on one, forever

proving your manhood. Oh Chicago
city of the pioneer & immigrant
what stained the prairie winter
what tamed the stinking onion.

Oh Chicago of culture after
culture blended into one
fine meat stew, of screaming
airplanes in the night, of

races segregated so that
neighborhoods quickly & deftly
become others and the
accelerator the trusted ally.

Oh Chicago of your Picasso
scared the Mayor, your
once-stained Miro & your classic
museums, the ones the French
would long to loot
& repatriate its jewels.

City of the Big Shoulders
still building
        wrecking
                     re-building

the concrete hammer
active in the
sticky-aired
                 summer.


Oh Chicago, w/ your
Von Freeman bebop Tuesday
nights at the New
Apartment Lounge, of your

jazz   intense & free
of your Pale Hose
striking a blow w/
a Big Hurt & fireworks
illuminate the South Side
                                       night.

Of cow after cow
              pig after pig
                              fowl after fowl
slaughtered - no longer here -
to feed the millions
of unrepentant
                               carnivores.

I bathe
                              in your wet days
& star-watch
                                  into the dawn.

I am your child
             your creation
           I seek the brotherhood
                    you've nourished
        long to re-create it
           in the land of the holy
                                                 chariot.

I miss your architecture
your bold plans
your commitment to plans
          that WORK.

Chicago, I am your
         son & carry your
                  lessons in my blood.

They have taken me
                    from my city, yet this
city of my heart
lives forever
&
will reclaim my
bones
as its own

dirt


peN#978
3:36AM
8.10.00
3451 N. Ozanam, Chgo, IL