Saturday, March 28, 2009
a bank worth a lot of jingo poem
the 1893 Villa Banca Italia on Via Nationale
opened its doors to the public
for the first time,
one day only, today
must have been a thousand in line
not lira just patient people
maybe nuthouse patient candidates
way too quiet and orderly
didn’t throw a fit after
an hour and a half in line
before we took a step
ninety-eight point six per cent Italians
unreasonably orderly and quiet if you ask me
especially because one at a time,
two line jumpers got in by us
both short guys over sixty
one started with the ploy of talking to M.,
saying he had to use the bathroom,
remember and use that as an icebreaker
at your next social gathering
of course i chimed in and had to tell him
where he could go to find one
after five minutes i realized he
had established to those behind us
that he was talking with us, must be with us
the second line jumper,
another pro with a ploy
slipped in and began
peering ahead intently,
like he'd been doing it for a week,
and stayed that way,
not looking around, hardy breathing,
an infractor actor playing statue,
after ten minutes he was in
we strategically stayed ahead of both of them
and let the people behind deal with them
those people acted like they didn’t notice
Italians being polite? no way!
they were being non confrontational
okay, okay, so we went into the villa
walked around a while and saw
where the rich people had
a fine bank palace, a lot of marble, big stairs
and held meetings over a
table maybe fifteen steps long
the longest table i have ever seen in my life
what did i do on the second floor?
i had to peek through some front window curtains
and look down on the street
we came from
then we left,
end of poem
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