Joe Dolce: Three Poems

Houston Riot of 1917

Gentlemen and generals, members of the Bar,

I ask you to hear and review the facts just as they are,

in the matter of this riot and soldiers’ mutiny,

of the Third Battalion, 24th black US Infantry.

The boys were sent to Houston, from free New Mexico,

under orders from the War Department telling them to go,

but the segregated Texans denied equality,

they saw black soldiers as a threat to racial harmony.

Two hundred Negro soldiers refused the Jim Crow stamp.

A mob of angry citizens approached Fort Houston camp.

Sergeant Vida Henry, of First Company,

marched against the angry mob to quell insurgency.

A violent encounter shattered Houston’s peace.

Black soldiers killed fifteen armed whites including four police.

Martial Law was declared, the 24th relieved,

seven soldiers testified in exchange for clemency.

So gentlemen, I rest my case in this court martialling,

I beg your Honours grant acquittal and judge impartially.

Even President Wilson spoke out, but old Jim Crow couldn’t hear,

thirteen black soldiers hung that Christmas—six more by New Year.

Joe Dolce

In the Next Life

Sometimes I think about my mother,

the way she used to hold me tight,

I know she’s waiting for me there,

in the next life.

It’s been so long since I saw him,

so many things we didn’t put right.

Father and son will speak together,

in the next life.

There’s no need to feel so angry,

there’s no need for us to fight,

the puzzle’s pieces will all fit,

in the next life.

Joe Dolce

Three-Ring Fleas

lived a year, three months, more likely.

With vertical leaps of seven inches, long jumps of twelve,

one out of ten was athletic enough to reach the Little Top.

In 1570, to promote meticulous craftsmanship,

blacksmiths first attached microscopic chains to torsos.

Other bugs bore golden saddles, re-enacting Waterloo.

Fleastars became sideshow-famous

amongst bearded ladies and camel girls.

They dove from platforms, walked thread,

appeared to read books, but,

ultimately untrainable,

legerdemain was employed:

glue affixed harnesses to backs, tiny fiddles to legs,

lint, on a flipped-over bug, triggered juggling.

Due to the siphonaptera’s virtual invisibility,

slight-of-handers rigged magnets, to twiddle

mini-props, simulating non-existent actors.

Improved hygiene contributed to decline in popularity,

as circus escapees often traded

plague, typhus and tapeworm.

Joe Dolce