Stashu Kapinski is an amalgam of voices from the Lawrenceville neighborhood in Pittsburgh where Lisowski grew up--unemployed steelworkers, chronic drunks, disenfranchised immigrants--who, in spite of it all, have not totally given up...

 

 

 

A TRIP AIN’T NOTHIN’ BUT A FALL

 

Like usual, I ain’t payin’ attention,

rushin’ into the Eagle to play my number,

rushin’ so’s I don’t miss my bus to town

when bam! I run into her.

We both fall down,

but she gets up quick.

“Damn!” I says.  “Tush,” she says.

“Holy shit!” I says.  “Son of a bitch,” she says.

“I can’t believe my eyes,” I says.  She laughs.

“Tush,” she sorta sings—it’s her pet name for me.

I start to apologize in a thousand ways.

Must be twenty years since I seen her last.

An’ she’s lookin’ only a coupla years older.

 

She’s smilin’, her blue diamond eyes

shootin’ a million dazzlin’ sparkles.

I try to get up but, hell, know full well

I’m only gonna fall down

harder again.

 

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