The Poetry Corner

1920's Flicker

By Paul Cameron Brown

John Dillinger and Baby-Faced Nelson in a dream together - one shooting holes thru theories of his untimely death, the other frying in an old-time (e) Electric Chair with balloons waving, bonbons going off, the crowd in a joyous, boisterous mood. The marquee reads: "Public Enemy Number One laid to rest in a shallow grave as gravelly as the heart that beat in his stoney chest." An adjacent sign noted, crime does pay the undertaker but other, good-hearted folks need look no further than the Dempsey-Tunney fight to see which has the bigger box office draw.