Steven Trebellas
TRICK ACAPELLA ANGEL
The lonely Doo-wop man carries his heart
through the streets of the obsidian city. Obelisks,
like colossal electric razors gaze on his pompadour
as he inches along, but make no harmony with him.
He remembers friends―Johnny, Fast Eddie,
Magic Mike, and sad/sweet songs that made
the Ladies cry―sung beneath the moon,
on a South-Philly corner―so long ago.
He tells a cart-vendor who is too cold to care,
that he once opened for the Belmonts, and his song―
the one that was stolen, would have made him. His voice:
smooth, like a Winston makes you think it's true,
but the wind cuts him short with a warning,
and the sun ducks behind clouds as if avoiding
association, so he hi-fives and heads for the shelter.
The lonely Doo-Wop man does not know
that in Heaven tonight, one trick Acapella Angel
will sing all 4 parts of his song--the one that was stolen―
the one that would have made him―and that Girl-Angels
will cry (a little) and all this in an optimised town,
on a perfect Doo-wop corner, and beneath a singer's moon.
Season's over. Time to store the cart. So much can happen
between now and April, and the lonely Doo-Wop man
with nowhere to go but up.
OPHELIA
(based on an EMT report)
The patient was found
eating dirt and
trying to stuff a baby
back into her womb.
She is nude. She is
currently making no sense.
She is threatening, stating she
will place a spell on all of us.
She is delusional,
accusing us of conspiracy, saying
we are lower than she,
that we will eat dirt, that we
will attempt to re-enter our
mother's wombs.
The patient says our time is up.
The patient says it is we
who are delusional.
Steven Trebellas, 54 years old, recently received his MFA from Southern Illinois University. His poems previously appeared in Innisfree 3. His background is in mechanics and home repair. Raised in Illinois, he participated in strikes, riots, and protests, including, at the age of 16, the 1968 Democratic Party Convention in Chicago. He was kicked out of Culver Stockton College at 19 for protesting his black roommate's expulsion for dating a white woman. He was a labor organizer while at Southern Illinois University. He loves the writings of the Beats, but also current poets, especially, Rodney Jones, W.S. Merwin, James Wright, and Kim Addonizio. He currently lives in a gas station, has no health insurance, and occasionally looks for work in Burlington, Iowa.
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