A Hoffa Lieutenant Reminisces
A Hoffa Lieutenant Reminisces
Original Text
S. P. Zitner, The Hunt on the Lagoon (Fredericton, N.B.: Goose Lane, 2005): 59.
2Even you’re Godamighty
3You do what you got to--
4Fire, flood, whatever.
5Like the neighbourhood I grew up,
6Your rent’s behind, you’re on the street,
7Your stuff on show, getting remarks.
8One time a few of us kids used crowbars.
9Landlord got the point. Let us squat,
10or he’d be paying mortgage on a woodpile.
11Rig by rig and route by route,
12we outmuscled, we outbargained,
13we outbribed and outlawyered
14Them. And we built the union, us.
15And no one grudged us what we took.
16It was our turn.
17First we got statehouse clout, then national.
18Then They knew they had to take out Jimmy.
21and the limo going nowhere.
22They had the power and They took their turn.
Notes
1] Hoffa: Jimmy Hoffa (1913-ca. 1975), American leader of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, imprisoned for bribery and fraud, who disappeared on July 30, 1975, and is thought to have been murdered by underworld figures with whom he was then scheduled to meet. Back to Line
19] Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary, Pennsylvania. Back to Line
20] do: kill. Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011
Rhyme
Form
Special Copyright
Copyright © Fred Tronly, the poet's literary executor. Authorization to republish this poem must be obtained in writing.