Three poems by Ed Sanders

The Ice (a true tale), from Peace in a Raging Century, Selected Poems 1961-1985

It was new year's
Eve 1959 and there was
no where to make love

the were sitting in te Figaro Cafe
at MacDougal & Bleecker Streets
sipping an orzata and a grenadine

bought a small bottle of brandy
went to
fort tryon park
washington heights
columbia boat basin

climbed high up in the
rocks there had been snow

making love
steep incline between rocks
tennis shoes gripping
opened his coat and they
wigged off the rock
and slid down the ice flow

"we're sliding." they couldn't stop
& the ice thrilled her buttocks.

Anger Farms & Gambling, from America: A History in Verse 1900-1961

In the USA that summer [1930]
the huge wheat crop
let to a collapse in prices

while in Nevada the Depression
drove it to legalize gambling, quickie non religious marriages,
& divorces after six weeks,
after which there wasn't much more of a money problem
unto the century's end

Fred & Ginger, from America: A History in Verse 1900-1961

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
began their dance films

Their dances were filmed
in long, flowing takes
with full figure solos &
pas de deux

Dancing, in the days of the Hays Code,
was as close to balling
as the Nation could see

As Katherine Hepburn allegedly said, "He gave her class, and she
gave him sex."