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Rita Banerjee: “The Suicide Rag”

May 9, 2018 by PBQ Leave a Comment

Billy played ragtime
on the church
organ but we
 
lunch hour kids,
kept time by another
name.  Behind St. Augustine’s
 
we learned to hit
the pavement, sound
like an anvil
 
crack
hammers hitting
steel, Billy playing
 
skeletons
on the fifth,
we arpeggioed
 
haloed, froze
on the black
top.  Learning
 
to cakewalk
This was our
battle—
 
tar-mat babies
doing handsprung
suicides
 
for the girls
standing ’round
with knife-like eyes
 
That’s all
we needed—
a rolling
 

beat, a firing squad
and schoolyard
skirts
 
scouring the lot
as we fell
face forward
 
hands locked
& stiff, the only
thing
 
that could’ve
come between
us was a kiss.

Filed Under: Issue 97

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