Brooklyn Dinosaur
By Michael Domino

Two AM
Sarge’s Deli
Open 24 Hours
Best Corned Beef in New York City.
Stuffing with Gravy
This is what you want at two a.m.
Red leather booths
Ripped and taped.
Daily News scattered.
Lenny Bruce Picture, out of focus.
We got chopped chicken liver with pickled red pepper
and barley with mushrooms.
Waiter was quiet with his slicked back greaser hair.
Cliff asked him where he was he from.
And that was that....
We got The Dinosaur of Brooklyn
He was a Lord of Flat Bush
and had the tattoos to prove it.
Brooklyn Italian working in a Jewish deli's graveyard shift.
He had a problem with the Yuppie invasion of Brooklyn.
He fought for those streets and now they can be bought with
the kid's Daddy's money  from Iowa. He had this thing about Iowa;
like there are two planets, Brooklyn and Iowa.
On Brooklyn the air is safe to breathe.
The chopped chicken liver was like heaven and when he served it
to us on heavy plates he said, "God bless you. Enjoy, fellas."
Where will he go?
How will he survive in Iowa?
© 2007 by Michael Domino
Manhattan
February 2008