Poem
Penis Extensions
Ron Kolm
Warfare has always been
About extending your will
Further than your enemies.
Stones, spears and bows and arrows
Were all used in fornication.
Then crossbows, muskets,
Cannons and bombs were invented
To fuck with the m...
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Poem
CBGBs
Ron Kolm
I worked in the Strand bookstore
with Tom Verlaine.
He invited me
to CBGBs the first time his band,
Television, played there.
Punk was born that night.
I ended up getting into a fight
with my date
and we left ...
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Poem
The Beat Goes On
Ron Kolm
It was a slow night in the bookstore
so I went over to the literature section
and grabbed a copy of Celine's
Death on the Installment Plan
and took it back to my post
at the cash register.
I hid it under the counter
...
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Poem
What Will Come of It All
Ron Kolm
I’m sitting
In the Parkside Lounge
With a good friend, drinking
Too many White Russians
And bemoaning
The state of the world.
“What’s going to happen?”
I ask her.
“Well,” she says,
“There wi...
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Story
Problem Child
Ron Kolm
It all started with a big bang -- the sound of something heavy smashing against a wall, and it came from the apartment directly below mine. I headed out into the hallway to see what had happened, and was greeted by the secon...
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Review
One Hundred Years Among the Daisies, poems by George Wallace – Review
Ron Kolm
One Hundred Years Among the Daisies, poems by George Wallace. Published by Stubborn Mule Press, 2018.
I have this notion that the chunk of time we’re going through in ‘our’ American culture, under Mr. Trump, is ...
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Essay
Matty Jankowski, RIP
Ron Kolm
There was a posting on Facebook on Saturday, January 12th, by Joe Maynard, an old friend, saying that a buddy of ours, Matty Jankowski, had just passed away in Florida. It was a very moving tribute, and it also contained a l...
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Review
A Hermit Has No Plural by Gabor G. Gyukics – Review
Ron Kolm
A Hermit Has No Plural by Gabor G. Gyukics, Singing Bone Press.
A Hermit Has No Plural, a collection of poems by the great Hungarian writer, Gabor G. Gyukics, is wonderfully unique. It is a surrealist vision of a world...
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Poem
Hand Job
Ron Kolm
Hand Job
It’s my first day on the job
In a plant making hand trucks.
“You’ll be rubbing acid on new
Welds to seal them,” the foreman
Tells me. “Here’s some rubber
Gloves,” he says, tossing me a pair. ...
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Poem
Hells Kitchen
Ron Kolm
Hells Kitchen
After the war in Vietnam
Wound down, and my stint
Doing alternative service
Came to an end,
I had to stop
And take stock
Of my situation.
I could return to Pennsylvania
And get a job in a factory
D...
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Poem
Classical Music Lover
Ron Kolm
Classical Music Lover
I was sitting behind the cash register
In Eastside Bookstore
On a warm summer afternoon
In June, 1976.
The evening junkie group nod
Hadn’t started yet,
But they would eventually
Shuffle in...
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Story
A Christmas Miracle, Sort Of…
Ron Kolm
It’s a cold morning, two weeks before Christmas, and I’m walking across 57th street on my way to work when I noticed him up ahead, shuffling along the curb -- silver hair, blue jacket and white sneakers – not dressed f...
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Story
A Bad Day – An Excerpt From Duke And Jill
Ron Kolm
Duke knew it was going to be a bad day, even before he got out of bed. He had a splitting headache, and a lump the size of a nickel bag on the back of his neck. He couldn’t remember where he’d been last night—or how he...
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Poem
8th Street Station (Yin-Yang)
Ron Kolm
I met you
At the Grey Gallery
Across from Washington Square Park.
We were going to the opening
Of The Left Front: Radical
Art in the “Red Decade.”
We ate all the peanuts
And most of the chips
That were set out...
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