The poems in this book grow out and around the Hotel Vernon, built
at the turn of the 20th century in Worcester, Massachusetts. Once an
elegant place for local politicians to make their backdoor deals at the
edge of the city, it slowly fell into decline each decade following
Prohibition. Despite this, it has always been a space where artists,
newspapermen and neighbors gathered at the bar or, after the late 1940s,
in its Ship Room, a room purportedly modeled after the second berth of
the Mayflower. In its barroom is a 1940s mural of ?The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner,? painted by the owner?s son-in-law bartender and his
friends, including the cartoonist, Al Capp.
In these poems, oral histories are poised between and among
flagrant sexuality, humor and abject poverty. Patsy Cline, Babe Ruth,
WWI?s ?Sacrifice Division? and Roy Orbison inhabit this space alongside
the local residents: the Baker, Maurie, Charlie and Stosh. Names of
neighborhood places?Rizutti?s Goodnight Caf‚, The Nines, The
Greyhound?are recited as both proof and pride in a neighborhood that was
diminished through the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act,
cutting off foot traffic to local businesses by 1970.