H.B. Ussach

LITERATI

Crowding Caesar's Caffe, over by City College,
Cliques talk at the tiny marble tables;
They sip latte and espresso,
Lips lined with ferment and foam;
By the window, the unwashed in jeans and tees
Hiss through wispy goatees: "Read Marx's Manifesto."
Back by the brick wall, clean ones in slacks and shirts
Say: "Read Burke's essay on government."
And back, way back, behind the potted palm,
Wiseguys in coats and hats stick up for Family:
"Read Gotti's court records."


H.B. reads "Literati":



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H.B. confesses: “I sit at tables mindin' my own business, I swear it, on my dear mother's grave, I can't help it if I overhear gossip and stuff. I got a way of rememberin' it, you know? Some people, they don't like it, but that’s the way I am. Take the other night for example..."


H.B. USSACH teaches critical writing, literature, technical communication, and public speaking at Roger Williams University (Rhode Island) and Bristol Community College (Massachusetts). He is a journalist, editor and published writer with a B.A. from Queens College/CUNY and an M.A. in print journalism from American University, Washington, D.C. Previous poems have appeared in Blueline, the literary review of SUNY-Potsdam; The Wall Street Journal; The New Bedfor Standard Times; and recited at BCC and Whaling City Review poetry readings.

H.B. Ussach

THE SALTED CORPSE

Secrets lie in the shallows,
strewn along sandy bottoms
where reeds hide dark deeds,
where sweet and sour scents
mix with those from the sea;
A corpse lies salted in a pond—
There,
right there—
Down below the road where cool water
calls passing drivers to stop a while
to rest their mean red eyes.


H.B. reads "The Salted Corpse":



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H.B. confesses: "A journalist digs for a story, sure that something lurks behind a façade or under the surface. As a poet in addition to a journalist, I seek the good in bad, the bad in good, comedy in tragedy, tragedy in comedy, and ugliness in beauty."


H.B. USSACH teaches critical writing, literature, technical communication, and public speaking at Roger Williams University (RI) and Bristol Community College (MA). He is a journalist, editor and published writer with a B.A. from Queens College/CUNY and an M.A. in print journalism from American University, Washington, D.C. Previous poems have appeared in Blueline, the literary review of SUNY-Potsdam; The Wall Street Journal; The New Bedfor Standard Times; and recited at BCC and Whaling City Review poetry readings.