‘Hustle for Cigarettes’, ‘Gravel Road’ & ‘Airplanes Under the Tree’
Jack Bordnick's sculptures and photography incorporate surrealistic, mythological and magical imagery often with whimsical overtones — aimed at provoking our experiences and self reflections. Aiming to unbalance our rational minds, the predominant imagery deals mostly with facial expressions of both living and “non-living” beings, and things that speak to us in their own languages. They are mixed media assemblages that have been assembled, disassembled and reassembled, becoming abstractions unto themselves
Hustle for Cigarettes
Five and barefoot
Billy told me to carry
a wooden tray
of empty soda bottles;
he took the other
and together we carried them
for cash at the corner;
we carried heavy trays
all the way
from our alley
where a clerk gave us
five buffalo nickels
in exchange for bottles;
we gave the coins back
for sweet cigarettes
and Royal Crowns,
returning to Saratoga Street
for our friends to enjoy.
Gravel Road
I remember the gravel road
where we drove to the farm;
two ruts packed by tires
rolling beneath a huge oak tree;
Like the road of Lucinda,
the dust she could taste
driving the gravel road in the dark,
near the farmhouse
surrounded by long grass;
we will watch it mow tomorrow,
the soft stickers before spikes
turn gray and cling to all our long jeans.
Airplanes Under the Tree
Children have sacred objects for fun;
crucifixes soar like airplanes,
flying the wilds of Africa -
a wooden cross the perfect toy;
good fliers through the room,
zooming over a nativity scene,
where a baby waited
in a manger for a ride;
I kept flying
over and around the couch,
but shifted to plastic sheep and cows
all marching together
under the Christmas tree;
straw glued firmly
to the little barn roof, I liked to pull it off,
cotton was mushy snow,
and three kings waiting
in plastic for baby Jesus
Christmas morning.
Allan Scherlen’s experiences as a child were on a farm in Texas, but he eventually settled in the mountains of Appalachia. Along the way, he discovered poets and his trips to Mexico and China added rich experiences that influenced him. Being a librarian brought him closer to books and the music of the mountains. He has published in Progenitor, New Words Press, Azahares Spanish Literary Mag, New Note Poetry, Hong Kong Review, Galway Review, Word’s Faire, Bluebird Word and Vermilion.
