Tell it like it is M.L. and Wanda and Walt and Eminem and Maria and...

Nice review of the anthology "Working Words" in Hot Metal Bridge, the litmag at University of Pittsburgh. The reviewer, Amanda Brant, points out that "tell it like it is" seems to be the touchstone holding the many pieces together." Who can argue? Not every day that Eminem and Walt Whitman and Jim Daniels and Wanda Coleman and Emily Dickinson and Michael Moore and Maria Mazzioti Gillan get to share the same stage.

The reviewer excerpted the end of Gillan's long poem, “Daddy, We Called You.” Because it is much easier to cut-and-paste than actually type, here it is:

Papa,
silk worker,
janitor,
night watchman,
immigrant Italian,
better than any “Father Knows Best” father,
bland as white rice,
with your wine press in the cellar,
with the newspapers you collected
out of garbage piles to turn into money
you banked for us,
with your mousetraps,
with your cracked and calloused hands,
with your yellowed teeth.

Papa,
dragging your dead leg
through the factories of Paterson,
I am outside the house now,
shouting your name.

Read the entire review at Hot Metal Bridge.

Buy "Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams" at Coffee House Press or from your local bookstore.