Notes About The Poem

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre on Clark Street in Chicago

Drenched In Red

Drenched in Red, with St. Valentine

Straight-up the arrows,
hard-pressed the doors
to all the rooms
in all the houses
on Clark Street.

Father Coughlin brought blessings
thinned with broth
from potato peelings.

Women poured tears
into fringed shawls,
and buried their dead
above Dublin’s seashore,
along the banks
of the river Liffey.

Through the years,
the ghost of James Clark,
Bugsy’s brother-in-law,
pursued Al Capone 
all the way to his grave.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2014

Poem

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