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Justin Bigos' poems have appeared in NY Arts, Gettysburg Review, Ploughshares, Indiana Review, Crazyhorse, and elsewhere.
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Published Fall 2006
 
Photograph of My Stepfather with Handguns
From the waist up, in black and white,
he is a free man. Arms raised
in mock pat-down, loaded holster
under each shoulder. He wears a face
shaved clean, mouth caught in something
between a laugh and sneer.
Crucifix on a chain; three buttons
undone. Pomade, pinky ring
and suspenders. It's 50's gangster
without the fedora, without
the blood. Whoever shot this
only pressed a button:
this is self-portrait
in the come-and-get-it style
of a man I never knew.
In the gravel of I-95 with a shredded tire,
my stepfather looks at the photo, pulpy and creased
in my hand. I used to be a stick-up guy, he says.
That's it. He doesn't know I know: the time
in jail, three felonies, numbers rackets
and hijacked trucks, the bullets
in his back. I've seen the scars clustered
around his spine; how his body moves
only when it needs to, like the boss
he never was. My mother warned me
not to ask questions. An accident, maybe,
this photo stashed in the glove compartment
with a flashlight—or an old charm
against those who'd dare to stop him running
red lights. He slams the door.
I get on the ground. I keep my mouth shut.
I work quickly in the dark
with the little light he gives me.
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MR BOOKS
Critics at Work
ed. Jeffrey J. Williams.
Critics at Work offers a guided tour through the central, sometimes confusing and frequently controversial developments in contemporary literary and cultural criticism. The tour guides, however, are not distant observers but have been primary participants in those developments, and they report on theory, cultural studies, the literary canon, the recent focus on race, sexuality, and other identities, the state of the univerisity, and the role of the intellectual. Throughout, they consider the not always easy negotiation of politics and culture.
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