A MURDER MOST FOUL

by Christina Pacosz




Jimmy they're digging up the earth again
to find you,  a Valentine's Day baby
from the Hoosier state.
An old farm of disturbed earth. Not even a barn remains.
I am crying at the news.  Startled by my tears.  So much went down with you.
July 30, 1975.  Nixon, for chrissakes, pardoned you.  You did your time.
Your  children mourn you still.  Your daughter, the retired Missouri judge,
says she is grateful to the FBI for trying to find you.
A bone fragment, a bit of hair. Something.  You were a man others turned to.
You understood the word solidarity as something in your bones. Your blood. They could kill you
but not that.   The Oakland County sheriff calls your disappearance an open wound for Detroit.
You made the Teamsters the biggest union ever and used your clout until they took you out.
You.  Hoffa.  Your son still runs the union.
This isn't pop history but a midden heap, a litany of woes you tried to fix
so what if you wanted to get yours?


Born and raised in Detroit by working-class Polish-American parents, Christina Pacosz’  poetry/writing has appeared in literary magazines and online journals for almost  half a century. A poet-in-the-schools and a North Carolina Visiting Artist, she has published several books of poetry, including Greatest Hits, 1975-2001, Pudding House, 2002, a by-invitation-only series.  Her chapbook, Notes from the Red Zone, originally published by Seal Press in 1983, was selected as the inaugural winner of the ReBound Series by Seven Kitchens Press in 2009.

THE ART OF SEEING VALUE

by Lylanne Musselman

Image source: HuffPost Detroit

I went to see Vincent

van Gogh’s painting

on loan from Paris,

Bedroom in Arles,

in Detroit, a place

so bankrupt, city

officials are looking in-

to assets the Detroit Institute

of Arts owns. Yes,

Michigan politicians

and many citizens

could prostitute

irreplaceable art. It exhibits

how some would

sell their souls, aid

the American idea

money saves

at all costs. In Detroit,

citizens comment:

Sell the DIA and open

a money making business

like a casino; Art is

just a perception, it might

evoke emotion for people

or nothing; If Detroit goes

bankrupt the museum collection

could be seized…

I stood less

than a foot away

from the painting

van Gogh brushed

life into. The awe of it all,

knowing he painted this

bedroom scene to show

his brother, Theo,

how tranquil Arles was,

to see his perspective,

his ever-present blues.

Lylanne Musselman lives in Toledo, Ohio. Her poems have appeared in Brevity Poetry Review, Literary Brushstrokes, The Rusty Nail, Pank, Tipton Poetry Journal, New Verse News, among others, and many literary anthologies. Lylanne has authored three chapbooks: Prickly Beer & Purple Panties (Bacon Tree Press, 2007), A Charm Bracelet for Cruising (Winged City Press, 2009) and Winged Graffiti (Finishing Line Press, 2011), and is a co-author of the recently published book, Company of Women: New and Selected Poems (Chatter House Press, 2013).