Ducktail Poems

Wiseguys

Wiseguys

when I was a skinny
eight-year-old boy
I knew him as
Willy Shoes

it was Brooklyn 
in 1950 and
some men had
strange names 
reflections of personality
deed or look

he and his friends
never seemed to have jobs
but gathered on corners 
played cards in social clubs 
always friendly always polite

Willy Shoes was handsome
with large dark Mediterranean eyes
dressed to the nines
silk shirts pegged pants
gold cufflinks and alligator belts
jet-black hair combed
into a perfectly Brylcreemed
ducktail and pompadour 
you could see your reflection
in the high gloss of any pair
of shoes from his infinite
spit shined collection
 
Wille liked me 
hey kiddo  he would say
here’s a buck
take this here envelope
and give it to Thomazula
the bootblack

one day when
I was about seventeen
I saw a picture of
Willie Shoes
on the front page of
the New York Post 
handcuffed and trying to
hide his face with a
neatly pressed
pin-striped suit jacket

Willie “Shoes” Sansone it said
charged with the murders
of eleven gangland figures

and I remember wondering
if he would let me have
a few pair of his fancy shoes
while he was away...