Thomas Fucaloro | Two Poems

The Meaning of Corn

Little cartoon yellow bullets
pulled from cobbed gums
glisten with spit and
delicious. Filled to the ear.

No one comes close
to our consumption. Filled
to the beer, we are a nation
defined by what we grow.

8 interesting facts about corn
and none of them are this
poem.


First published in Eratio.


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600 Ways To Give People The Shaft

we wore yellow
to each other’s farewell
although the band played
while the dead danced
we morphed
into an unknown
knowing we would


The titles of these poems come from the George Carlin’s list poem “Join the Book Club,” the ninth track of his album A Place for My Stuff, recorded and released in 1981, from Atlantic Records.


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The winner of a performance grant from the Staten Island Council of the Arts and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Thomas Fucaloro has been on six national slam teams. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the New School and is a co-founding editor of Great Weather for Media and NYSAI press. He is an adjunct professor at Wagner College and BMCC, where he teaches world lit and advanced creative writing.