Peter M. Gordon

GUN MOLLS

You can love those sweet young things,
their dimpled chins and fluttering wings.
I want a dame who can handle a gun
and laughs when the trouble bell rings.

She’ll stick by her man ’til the crime is done.
Help him plan jobs; polish his Tommy gun.
She knows each scam; doesn’t fear any cop.
Her life is full of excitement and fun.

She’ll return fire when the bullets pop,
soul mate for man on his way to the top.
She believes her lover’s no common crook.
Oh, molls love their work; their crimes never stop.

For a moll has a code, though it’s not in a book,
She knows when to smile, when not to look;
She’ll kiss her man bye, then pocket his roll,
and leave him before a judge throws the book.

Spare me the ingénue playing a role.
I want a girl who’ll split money we stole.
Hard like diamond, my moll’s colder than ice.
With her, my crime life feels like paradise.


Peter's YouTube reading of "Gun Molls":


Peter confesses: I memorized Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” in fifth grade. I knew I may never write a poem that great, but I realized recently that I could write one with the same format. I thought about film noir, and this poem just seemed to write itself.

PETER M. GORDON is an award-winning poet with over 200 poems published in various journals. He's authored three collections, and is a founder and past President of Orlando Area Poets, a chapter of the Florida State Poets Association. Peter has taught workshops on writing and publishing poetry in several Florida cities. He teaches in Full Sail University's Film Production MFA program.