June 2012
Poetry
A Moment on Fulton Street
by Elvis Alves
It is a hot summer day
Screams come cascading
out the supermarket’s door,
bouncing off the sidewalk of the
heat-drenched street
The perpetrators follow
Three in all
At the center is a big, strong,
tall and broad Latino man
with a stolen packet of meat
tightly clutched in hand
The other two, much less
strong and small,
holding onto the thief and
grasping at the meat
They work for the boss
and must protect his keep
at all cost
Onlookers gather
One, a Trini, yells
“Let he go wid he meat”
The two cape crusaders do not
listen though,
until the giant frees
his hand and gives one
a mighty blow
From the crowd, the Trini
again “Ah told all-you so”
About Elvis Alves
Elvis Alves poetry has appeared in Garbanzo Literary Journal, Small Axe Salon, Magazine De La Mancha, Caribbean Writer Journal, and other journals. He lives in New York City and teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
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