Sunday, June 16, 2013

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




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