By Cal Freeman
Every purchase is a slovenly humiliation,
yet the new historicist in me
wants to tell you what I bought
at the Sunoco station at the corner
of Butler and Holmes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
circa some year of our lord—a three-pack
of Trojan Ecstasy condoms
and an eight-pack of Tums antacid tablets.
I also wanted to buy a banana
but feared looking ludicrous at checkout.
Another part of me, the part of me
that drank wine while wandering
the Allegheny Cemetery that afternoon,
doesn’t want to share my consumer habits
with anyone. Wingbeats, an incline
up the staggered stone steps calving
from the hillock, gravity is different here.
The upper half of you levitates toward pinnacles
while everything below the sacrum
feels heavy. The anniversary
of the immaculate reception is nigh,
the first since Franco Harris’ death.
Throughout Pittsburgh, on roads
that veer into chasmic river gorges,
they are planning an ungodly celebration
of grace through happenstance.
Cal Freeman is the author of the books Fight Songs (Eyewear, 2017) and Poolside at the
Dearborn Inn (R&R Press, 2022). His writing has appeared in many journals including The
Oxford American, The Poetry Review, River Styx, Southword, Passages North, and
Hippocampus. He lives in Dearborn, MI and teaches at Oakland University. He also serves as
music editor of The Museum of Americana: A Literary Review and as Writer-In-Residence with
InsideOut Literary Arts Detroit.
