vignette / sleds, ice picks, and murder incorporated

there are those who remember

the names of the snow sleds of their youth.

Charles Foster Kane did. ("Rosebud")

I know because I saw the movie.

fatso Dominic DeCarlo did, too.

and I know because I heard him

tell his buddies at the "Marconi Club".

I forget the sled's name, but it wasn't a knockout.

I was a “bar boy” at the time schlepping ice

from the basement which I had to stab repeatedly

with an icepick given to me by Octavio Cippolini. 

I was lucky when "Nicky" Nasone was behind the bar

because he liked the ice in manageable big chunks.

still, I made a pretty good icepick kid.

Frank Nitti would’ve hired me in a minute.

(lesson one: "anatomy of the neck")

I worked Saturday mornings after confession,

in which the recounting of my venial sins

were perfected, and exaggerated for effect.

one day, “Tony” Scelsi's sled was stolen,

(a nifty "Speedway") from behind the bocci lanes,

and the fat DeCarlo twins tracked it down, and slapped

the little runt around who nabbed it.

the kid's oldman just stood there like a shivering plank,

while Dominic pointed a severe index finger to his face

without the necessity of a verbal threat.

old "Ray" Pariese, who fashioned himself as the "Godfather

of Columbus Park", told my father of this who in no-uncertain-terms,

told me to get my sled from the backyard right now, and put it in the entry.

the command was instructive, and he didn't have to give it twice.