Monday, December 10, 2018

The Blood Stays by Tony Pena


The girl’s pink apple cheeks
inched up and closed
her baby blue eyes
as she smiled at the boy
with the black hair slicked
back deep in greasy pomade.
He pulled a switch blade
from his jeans and began
etching her initials on the oak
table at Piggy’s bar till a pudgy
forearm lunged over his shoulder
and in one fell swoop grabbed
the knife and plunged it
into the back of the boy’s hand .

He howled as the pretty
teen screeched like utensils
combing across a plate,
“what the fuck, Ma ?”
Piggy , the short but stout
proprietor, hollered, “shut up
and get your ass upstairs.
Casanova here is gonna have
to jerk off with his other hand,”
as she wiggled the knife ever
so slowly before pulling it out.
The busboy ran over with a rag
as the boy vaulted from
the booth and out the door.

The young girl shook
her head and stomped
her feet up the back stairs
to the second floor flat.
Piggy waved off the worker
saying, “don’t fuck with it.
It adds a little color to the place.
Besides, it beats going all
hostel on his ass and sticking
his oily skull on a stake
to ward off the heathens
looking to fuck my kid.
It’s a cruel world for girls,
man, a cruel world .”








Tony Pena was selected as 2017-2018 Poet Laureate for the city of Beacon, New York.  
A new volume of poetry and flash fiction, "Blood and Beats and Rock n Roll," is available now at Amazon.  He also has a self published chapbook, "Opening night in Gehenna."  His publication credits include “Chronogram,”  "Dogzplot,"   "Gutter Eloquence," “Hudson Valley Transmitter,” "Red Fez," "Slipstream,"  "Underground Voices," "Zygote in my Coffee,"  and others. 
Colorful compositions and caterwauling with a couple of chords can be seen at:




as his fist crashed against my head.


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