pound for pound the payoff,
that murderous right hook for old times
for the brothers shot dead on the street.
pound for pound the jealousy,
those years of raging bulls grunting
through the Guinea wine of Siciliano decades.
pound for pound the threat,
just speak the truth, fucker,
(we talkin) silk factory candystores,
dago Jerome Avenue duplexes
uprooted sidewalk Bronx trees.
come on, paisano!
(we talkin) bout payday here-
the title match!
pound for pound the years of jealousy,
smacked in the head with bricks and wooden benches,
dynamite slabs of fists howlin and stompin,
raging bull’s bleedin eyes
red ring through the nose,
this south Mediterranean deserted refugee Carmen
first massacres Sugar Ray
then wipes out French and Englishmen one by one.
pound for pound,
years of degenerate convoluted madness.
pound for pound,
this Dante with a head like a mactruck.
pound for pound,
this undisputed king of the mountain,
this Mott St legend for all time,
this hero reachin for the highest branch,
this hero sawin off the trunk below.
1981, NYC