Joe Dolce: Four Poems

Blondi

 

Eva Braun preferred her Scottish terriers,

Negus and Stasi, and hated Blondi,

whom she secretly kicked under tables,

getting satisfaction when Hitler became perplexed

at the shepherd’s strange behaviour.

 

Goebbels said the Führer enjoyed walking Blondi,

certain of no conversation on war or politics.

 

Blondi had five whelps,

one named Wulf,

after the Latin meaning of Adolph—

adalwolf: noble wolf.

 

Blondi, propaganda star,

portrayed the Führer as animal lover,

 

but doubting potency

of the final cyanide capsules,

Hitler ordered one

tested on Blondi,

 

who died instantly.

Joe Dolce

 

Leechcraft

Egyptians used leeches

3500 years ago, painting

them into hieroglyphics

(at first, mistakenly, thought to be cobras).

The Roman physician, Galen,

popularized leeching, announcing

major arteries filled with blood, not

air, as previously believed.

Leeches are hermaphroditic segmented worms,

with six to eight pairs of legs,

and thirty-two brains, one per segment.

A staple in Middle Ages home medicine cabinets,

if a leech refused to drink,

it could be encouraged with ale.

A family doctor was commonly referred to,

both professionally, and respectfully, as

the Leech.

Joe Dolce

Skeptic’s Friday

 

A black ladder crossed my path,

I walked under a cat.

Broken luck, seven-year mirror,

when in church, leave on your hat.

Knock off wood. Finger Crosses.

The thirteenth elevator cuts your losses.

Shoe a horse, pointing up,

spill the salt, in someone’s lap.

Put a table on your shoes.

Closed umbrellas, outdoors, can’t lose.

 Joe Dolce

Spock

Original Dutch family name Spaak,

fur traders, settled the 17th century American colony,

of New Netherlands.

Second wife, Mary, forty years younger,

introduced Spock to macrobiotic living—

he continued racing sailboats until

the age of eighty-four.

Norman Vincent Peale claimed

Dr Spock’s child-rearing books

led to the anti-Vietnam War movement.

Permissiveness in youth.

Son, Michael, directed

the Boston Children’s Museum.

Grandson, Peter, 22, committed suicide,

jumping off the museum roof.

A mother once wrote him:

Thank God, I’ve never used your horrible book.

That’s why my children take baths,

wear clean clothes,

and get good grades in school.

Joe Dolce