Jack Palance

by John Rocco

When I was a kid
there was the
Goddess Television
who taught me to
Believe It or Not
Jack Palance
hissing it out
with school tomorrow
and all the girls I loved
loving others
singing the school song:

Remember the walls
Remember the bricks
Remember the dicks
In P.S. 26.

Then the Glass Teat Goddess
gave me celestial head
with a black & white
Shane
Jack as Jack Wilson
skinny evil gunslinger
death bullets grinning
saying before he shoots them:
“Prove it.”

Then I’m older
hiding among a million
porn DVDs
smoking glowing in their plastic
I find Commie Spaghetti Western
Compañeros
with Jack as pot smoking
one-handed
crazy sadist
reminding me that I’ve
grown up with Jack Palance
who always played the bad guy
doing one-handed push-ups
at the Oscars after saying:
“Billy Crystal? I crap bigger than him."