By W. S. Di Piero

Use me
Abuse me
          Turn wheels of fire
          on manhole hotheads

Sing me
Sour me
          Secrete dark matter’s sheen
          on our smarting skin

Rise and shine
In puddle shallows
          under every Meryl Cheryl Caleb Syd
          somnambulists and sleepyheads

Wake us
Speak to us
          Bless what you’ve nurtured in your pits
          the rats voles roaches and all outlivers
          of your obscene ethic and politics

Crawl on us
Fall on us
          you elevations that break and vein
          down to sulfuric fiber-optic wrecks
            through drill-bit dirt to bedrock

Beat our brows
Flee our sorrows

          Sleep tight with your ultraviolets
          righteous mica and drainage seeps

                               your gorgeous color-chart container ships
                               and cab-top numbers squinting in the mist

• Social Commentaries

Poet Bio

W. S. Di Piero was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and received his bachelor’s degree from St. Joseph’s College and his master’s degree from San Francisco State College. He has also had a long teaching career at such universities as Louisiana State University, Northwestern University, and Stanford University, where he still teaches. Di Piero was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001. He often writes about growing up in his neighborhood of South Philadelphia, and the Italian-American working class families who largely populated the area. See More By This Poet

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