pound for pound,

the payoff,

the right hook for old times,

for the brothers shot dead in the street.

pound for pound,

the jealousy,

the years of raging bulls grunting

through the Guinea wine of years.

pound for pound,

the payoff,

speak the truth, fucker,

(we’re talking) silk factory candystores

talking dago duplexes on Jerome Avenue

and uprooted Bronx trees -

come on, paisanos!

(we’re talking) the payday-

talking the title match!

pound for pound,

the years of jealousy,

smacked in the head with bricks and wooden benches,

dynamite slabs for fists,

raging bull howling

eyes bleeding red

ring through the nose,

massacres Sugar Ray

wipes out Frenchmen like ol times-

deserted refugees south Mediterranean.

pound for pound,

the years of degenerate convoluted madness,

pound for pound,

Dante with a head like a truck,

pound for pound,

king of the mountain

for ol times,

hero climbs to the highest branch

hero saws off the trunk below.

1981

NYC