Lo Galluccio is a well-known poet and writer in the Boston area. She has had a long career in the music world as well–stretching back to her bohemian days on the Lower East Side of NYC.  A member of Somerville’s Bagel Bards, she submitted this poem ” Oh no, I’ve never been to America…”

“Oh no, I’ve never been to America…”
(Philip Larkin)
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Only to its 4^th of July flea markets and Florida

boardwalk romances. I’ve been to Bonny’s –

the Christmas tree shop with my mother –

snowcoated roads and baubles waiting in boxes.

I’ve walked uptown to a temp job in New York City

with a dollar in my pocket and been given lunch

money in corporate buffet outifts by strangers.

I’ve swooned in diners to Tom Waits’ primal esctasy

and wept for my losses in cinemas showing, “Luna”

and “Nixon.”

After losing you, I paced a lunatic psych unit

and woke up at dawn to peer through shuttered windows

to soak up violet light. I couldn’t believe the spring

had blossomed and you were gone forever.

My friends shouted to hang on over payphone lines.

I was lucky. I’ve seen that underground confinement

from suicide attempts. Been far away from home,

and come crawling back in such danger to return.

“Oh no, I’ve never been to America…”

But grieved through my Harvard education while

love kept me functional and drunk. On trains to

Montauk and Chicago standing in between the cars

to feel the wind against my face. Past the midwest

with a lover to Oklahoma and Missouri to see oil wells

and attend weddings.

On water, America, in sunsets. There was a crane

in a room full of buffalo heads that had to be covered

with tulle. Now they own a house and work in a Vegan

grocery. The sun beats down and night remains the enigma.

I believe in your movies and I don’t.

– Lo Galluccio

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