Knuckle Sandwhiches - Wayne F. Burke (BareBackPress)

Today's book of poetry:
Knuckle Sandwiches.  Wayne F. Burke.  BareBackPress.  Hamilton, Ontario.  2016.

Today's book of poetry had the real pleasure of checking out Wayne F. Burke's Dickhead (BareBackPress, 2015) back in January of this year.  You can read that blog here: http://michaeldennispoet.blogspot.ca/2016/01/dickhead-wayne-f-burke-bareback-press.html

Apparently Burke liked what I had to say enough that he quoted Today's book of poetry for one of his blurbs for Knuckle Sandwhiches, good on him.

Saw a video yesterday of an aging but still impressive Buzz Aldrin punch a man in the mouth, this man had been hounding Aldrin unrelentingly and saying the most vile and untruthful things.  Although Today's book of poetry believes that violence is never the answer we couldn't resist chuckling as the moon walking octogenarian set the man and his jaw straight.

Reading Wayne F. Burke's Knuckle Sandwhiches leaves a similar smirk on our entertained mug.

Christmas Morn

I woke and poked

my little brother

and he followed me

down to the living room

piled neck-high with presents

like the cave of Ali Baba

and then Gramp's voice

boomed "get back in those beds!"

and we crept back up

like condemned prisoners

to await a pardon

from Grandma who

gave us the okay

but said not to open gifts

until Uncle Al got up,

but he never did;

"must have celebrated too much"

Grandma said;

we dug in,

tore the paper

to shreds:

I got the black figure skates

I'd asked for

plus a book of Shakespeare's plays

from my sister

which I never read

because 

I did not know Shakespeare

from Shitmore.

...

Burke writes in such a straight forward line you could rule a page with it.  The laconic characters that walk through his world and these poems hurt where we hurt, dirge the same damned dreams as the rest of us.  Fail frequently.

Rights

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, outside

The Mug & Muffin Restaurant

a guy wearing a pork pie hat was

singing "Sixteen Tons"

for spare change

as another guy

over by the newspaper kiosk

poured gasoline from a can

over his head then asked passersby for a match

and some jackass gave him one

and some waitress screamed

and the guy with gasoline was

tackled

and as I moved ahead

against a tide of liberals

fleeing

as if for life

a girl with terror-dazed eyes

ran into my chest,

and the guy,

pinned to the ground,

screamed

"I want my rights!"

as if

setting himself on fire

in public

was one.

...

It's not that Burke is entirely without hope but his pragmatic realism doesn't leave much room for resplendent happy endings.

This morning's read was chirpy affair.  Instinctively, everyone rose before reading their poem.  Milo, our head tech, ranged around the office like he was trying to escape a wasp's sting.  Kathryn, our Jr. Editor, stood as rigid as a flag pole that nonsense would never run up.  The poems cracked, snapped and generally blue-sparked about the room.

Burke's Kunckle Sandwhiches had everyone on edge, alert.

Jackass

Trouble at the door of

Dunkin' Donuts:

a guy smiling like a 

happy jackass

stands holding the door open

for me

and 

when I fail to say

"thank you"

or anything else

his happy face turns to

mud

like the coffee served inside

and he snidely says

"you're welcome!"

to which

I reply

"get bent!"

and all his happiness

disappears into

the uncouth bowl

of jackass

life.

...

Knuckle Sandwhiches is exactly as advertised, a poetry punch in the head.  Wayne F. Burke is totally unadorned and he doesn't care who knows it.  His poems resonate with pure distilled precision, truth over tact.  

Today's book of poetry sees Burke as a clear drink of water in a world that is murky as hell.

 

Wayne F. Burke

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Wayne F. Burke was born in Adams, Massachusetts and raised by his paternal grandparents. As a boy he was an All-Star baseball player, and in High School an All Class-A football player. He attended the University of Massachusetts—where he was a member of the freshman football team—and three other institutions of higher learning before graduating from Goddard College in 1979. His work history includes stints as bartender, moving man, cook, machine shop operator, sign painter, substitute school teacher, carpenter, truck driver, book reviewer (for the Burlington Free Press newspaper, Burlington, Vermont), and, for the past four years, LPN in a nursing home. His stories, essays, reviews, and poems have appeared in numerous publications. He has two other collections of poetry, published by BareBackPress: Words that Burn (2013), and Dickhead (2015).

BLURBS
The word genius is bandied about far too freely, and most geniuses are not recognized as such in their life time. With that being said I am not the least bit hesitant to claiming Burke's poetic genius and I hope it is recognized in his lifetime.
     -  Matthew J. Hall, Screaming With Brevity

...a monster among us, a dangerous beast...reads like the best of Bukowski. Dead serious, no nonsense and if feels absolutely true. Burke swaggers through with such confidence you could almost resent his elan.
     - Michael Dennis, Today's book of poetry

NO ONE ELSE is writing poems like this, rooted in the read world, and with such a powerful voice.
    - Howard Frank Moser, Stranger in the Kingdom

...paradoxical twists, wordplay, subtle associations and darkly fun atmosphere.  (Burke) is an earthy pragmatist with a surreal inner life...an insomniac dreamer.
     - Ada Fetters, The Commonline Journal

barebackpress.com

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Poems cited here are assumed to be under copyright by the poet and/or publisher.  They are shown here for publicity and review purposes.  For any other kind of re-use of these poems, please contact the listed publishers for permission.

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Российские читатели - Большое вам спасибо за ваш интерес к современной книге поэзии . Я очень ценю иметь вас с собой в поездку .

A special thank you to the Russian readers of Today's book of poetry.

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