A Poem by Joseph Lisowski Cheap Thrills The high porch ain’t no more. Where did all them looneys go? When things got slow, you could always stand ona corner of 44th and Penn an’ hear them howl from the 7th floor, shoutin’ out craziness at you. You could spend hours screamin’ back, throwin’ stones at their twisted faces, which kept spittin’ at you through the bars. There ain’t no public wards no more. The Government says nobody ain’t that nuts. There’s taxes that gotta get paid, votes that gotta count. If you can’t pay your way, you ain’t got no say. If you don’t like it, find a cardboard box, why doncha?
	From 1986 to 1996, Joseph Lisowski was Professor of English at the University of the Virgin Islands.  St. Thomas serves as the setting for Looking for Lisa, his recently published novel available from Fiction Works (http://www.fictionworks.com).  Dr. Lisowski is now teaching at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina.  Recent chapbooks include JB, a dialogue in poem form between John the Baptist and King Herod (PoetryRepairShop), Stashu Kapinski Strikes Out (Rank Stranger Press), Fatherhood at Fifty (Tamafyhr Mountain Poetry), Sketches of an Island Life (dpi press), and Art Lessons (Tamafyhr Mountain Poetry).  The chapbook, Stashu Kapinski Gets Lucky, is now available from Pudding House Press.
		Summer 2006 Issue