With a Wicked Certainty. By John Pietaro

The rush of sound soars passed my ears   

At a pace faster than seems natural.   

But it’s welcome.  

  

The taste of bourbon on vermouth  

Slides over my lips as  

The rush of some sports event  

Rings over multiple televisions in concert,  

Above   

And well out of gaze.  

  

I have no idea whose playing or whether it be   

Ball game, tennis match or  

Horse race.   

  

Probably not   

A tennis match.  

  

And the scent of loud pilsner   

Strikes my nostrils with a wicked certainty.  

-John Pietaro, Nov 2, 2018, 7:25pm

loud tavern, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn NY

Photo By Sherry Rubel

John Pietaro is a writer, poet, spoken word artist and musician as well as curator of the “West Village Word” series at Café Bohemia NYC. A native of Brooklyn NY, Pietaro is columnist and critic of the NYC Jazz Record and currently engaged in book project Shifting the Jazz Narrative: photo essays of women instrumentalists for the Berklee College Institute of Jazz and Gender Studies. He is also writing a first novel, among other ventures. Credits include poetry chapbook Smoke Rings (2019), short fiction collection Night People (2013), a chapter in Paul Buhle/Harvey Pekar’s SDS: A Graphic History (2007) and numerous published essays, reviews, poems, reportage and fiction. As a performer, he’s shared the stage with Allen Ginsberg, Amina Baraka, Pete Seeger, Karl Berger, Steve Dalachinsky and many others. Pietaro fronts the post-punk neo-Beat duo Shadows with bassist Laurie Towers.  http://JohnPietaro.com