Eliot Ness Pisses on Crime
You can pretend like
you are Eliot Ness
ripping the river
with machine gun spray.
All the bad guys in the world
are holding their breath
under water,
waiting in the hope that
you will run out of ammo
before they run out of air.
However, as Eliot Ness,
it’s not going to happen.
You have been pissing
from bridges
since time began,
and the bad guys, even
though they dive deeply
are eventually swept
to the surface. It helps
if you’re young, stung
with vinegar, untouched
by the shy bladder.
–Al Ortolani
NOTE: In honor of National Poetry Month, each day a person’s birthday will be celebrated with a poem about or by him/her. The poems come from all over the place.
Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry 