5

Thomas Fucaloro

 

Mechanically Separated Chicken

 

It pours out like a long python with no beginning and no end

 

Modernists will call it abstract expressionism

 

Archeologists will say it’s how people thrived in a mall

 

The expectation of what is good for you isn’t always the reality it’s sketching with

 

It’s like how Picasso draws the wind, a long winding

 

Smear on bread spreads thickly from bone to mush we marrow

 

A black tree in a red sky bends as forward as gracious will allow

 

This will be the mall of the future

 

Walking in the rain carrying our umbrellas

 

 

 

***

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. His latest chapbook, “There is Always Tomorrow” was released in 2017 by Mad Gleam Press.