The Block

by John Rocco

In Baltimore
where Poe died
in the gutter
at 40
drunk to death
drinking still at
his grave
buried alive
in a booze tomb
womb bar
the bill too big to pay
there is today
a place called
the Block
one city block
with all the city’s
bad stuff
the strip clubs
the porno shops
the fucked-up good bars
a wasted girl
telling Bone
she needed money
for dresses
and when Bone and I
were there years ago
the D.C. Snipers
were shooting people
just pumping gas
all over the news.

We went to
the Block
and I met two strippers
I’ll never forget
because they taught
me a lot.


They told me their
real names
not their dancing names
but I was drunk then
so I’ll call them
CURLING IRON
and
DANCER IN THE DARK.

The first night I met
CURLING IRON
stacked southern girl
with a demonic abandon
I poured dollars over her curves
long and tight curves
erasing the Red Death
the burn mark on
her upper left tit
from the curling iron
that day late for work.
She told me she once
went out with a guy
really into anal porn.
“Wanna watch some
with me?” she asked.
I licked her burn
during the lap dance.

The second night
I was supposed to
meet CURLING IRON
but I was on the wrong
floor where I met
DANCER IN THE DARK
sad dark Russian girl
who told me her life in
America was like the
mad depressing Björk movie
DANCER IN THE DARK.
When I showed her the pamphlet
about Poe’s grave
she snapped it out of my hands
and asked to keep it
carefully folding it
and putting it with
her tips. She really
hated her time in America
but after the lap dance
she gave me the greatest
compliment:
“Do you always get
lap dances like that?”


*John Rocco at MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/292819823