Pound for Pound

pound for pound the payoff,

murderous right hook for old times

for the brothers shot dead on Little Italy streets.

pound for pound the jealousy,

years of raging bulls gruntin

through the Guinea wine of Siciliano decades.

pound for pound the threat,

just speak the truth, fucker,

(talkin) silk factory candystores,

dago Jerome Avenue duplexes

sidewalk Bronx uprooted trees.

come on, paisano!

(talkin) bout payday here-

the title match!

pound for pound 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 twisted nose,

south Mediterranean deserted refugee Carmine

first massacres Sugar Ray

then clocks Frenchmen and Englishmen one by one.

pound for pound,

years of degenerate convoluted madness.

pound for pound,

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 the highest branch,

this hero sawin off the trunk below.

1981, NYC