The Day after Vito’s Tavern, Father's Day 1957

(For my sister “Pidge”)

He was a left-handed Tarzan
swinging from Andante’s grocery store awning.
His right hand waved a .22 caliber pistol,
and shots rang out on Elizabeth and Race Street.

The Everly Brothers were singing

Bye, Bye Love on the Philco;

Rocky Marciano abandoned his title

the year before,
and this was just another Sunday brawl
between mom and dad.

The day after Vito’s Tavern brought no surprises

for my sister and me, but this time
mom broke my plastic guitar over his head,

heavy with 80-proof,
and we had to duck through alleys

and down gangways
to avoid his Ford Fairlane’s squealing tires.

Why was he chasing us?

How was I to know about the effects

of Early Times Kentucky whiskey
and Blatz beer at six-years-old?

He tried to leave mom before,

and he made my sister lug suitcases

down the stairs while I listened to cursing

and the neighbors’ murmurings,

their doors slightly ajar.

We cried because of his almost leave-taking,
but he passed out just in time
and my sister dragged his suitcases

up the stairs until next time.

Mom didn’t speak to him for four days,
and he made me his mediator
with a mission to obtain her mercy.
By Saturday, the two of them were going to Vito’s,
and I’m All Shook Up was playing
on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.

“The Next Day after Vito’s Tavern…” was originally published by Lake Shore Publishing, 1995.

For my book of poems: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2023/02/hum-if-you-cant-sing-book-of-poems-by.html