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Rhubarb
by Gulliver S. Gulliver

There is a plain
above the frolicking cloud
On which we’ve rid
‘neath our fraternal jibbing.

When on a day
under the moonbeaming trout
In whom do we trust
on whom do we lean.

They is our way
on the rosebed of thought
Another day deed
across the span that we need.

There are but one play
in which we all have a say
Hands on her hips
feeling and frustrating time.

COMMENTARY BY TARK MACKINTOSH

‘Rhubarb’ One of GSG’s most famous cubist poems, in which he attempts to consolidate three different perspectives of an amorous train wreck. The poem deals with the theme of extramarital infatuation and the consummation of shameful acts with near strangers, whom Cincinnati big-shots normally met at hotel receptions, cashier cages, or roadside diners. Cf. Carlisle’s exquisite monograph Jeans Tabby Mon (1987, 334 ff.).

a plain The stage is set: it is downtown Cincinnati, summer 1935. ‘Duke’ Rococo sets up in a corner booth at Greasy Pete’s on Fifth Ave and Race Street, and sits inside his massive body sipping on a beer. From his seat he has a clear shot up behind the counter, where his favourite waitress Tammy is bending far, far over the coffee machine, with playfully crossed legs.

above…cloud ‘Duke’ Rococo as a young stag had known Tammy in the early Twenties when he first began hiring her husband, the boxer and neighborhood diplomat Swanson Henson, for small-time jobs. The three had even dined together on a number of occasions at one of the mob boss’s speakeasy Italian seafood joints, and the gangster had been godfather to Swans’ middle three sons. So how was Don Rococo thrown off Tammy’s scent, so to speak, in 1935? Had the mobster suffered a lapse of memory? Was the Henson household too far below his station for real scrutiny? Or was it perhaps the massive facial scarring Tammy had suffered during the Great Hotdog Fire of 1929 at the Cincinnati Reds ballpark on Lancaster Drive, in which Tammy received third-degree burns over 99% of her body, what occluded the Duke’s one good eye?

which Read witch. Mad Tad explains that Tammy was quite simply ‘Duke’ Rococo’s Cincinnati Bathsheba, whom he had stumbled upon the previous week as she worked on a topless tan in the Henson backyard, and he was going to have her, come Swans or high water. ‘Don Rococo knew exactly who Tammy Henson was, and had had her in his sights for some time’ (Madison 1958, 218).

rid Though metrically incorrect, Markenbaldi (2003) has suggested the emendation rode, and accepted accolades for his reading. We have retained the original wording.

fraternized jibbing Dutch ruddering, amongst chums. Though a consummate normal, ‘Duke’ Rococo was known to have stuck his jib into more than one clock. The human, even animal side of the poet emerges with this wild indiscretion, or intentional slip.

a day The date was set. The lovers met in the Cincinnati Zoo at 11:00 am on 14 July, while Tammy’s husband Swanson Henson was busy on the far side of the city, chauffeuring our poet between business meetings. They strolled, laughed, and ate ice cream. Tammy, her elephant man face hulking and red beneath her parasol, confessed that she wrote ‘pomes’, and told the Duke about her frustration with the unlettered gorilla to whom she was shackled in conjugal eternity (Madison 1958, 221).

moonbeaming Not that Tammy was about to put out like a little junior high school slut. Face aside, she was looking good that summer, with long firm legs and a can you could sing to, and the extremely well-dressed crime boss had to endure five daytime pie and coffee dates before he got his chance to cash in his chips. Swans was due to travel overnight to Cleveland to a poetry reading GSG had scheduled at The Giraffe and Pony, and with the remaining children doing a sleepover at grandma’s, after dinner and a picture ‘Duke’ Rococo and Tammy returned to the Henson family home. The front door clicked shut – the light on the second floor landing winked on.

trust…lean Conscience rears its speckled, zombie face.

Image generated on Magic Studio