Ally Malinenko

Get On the Magic Bus

The guy at the trinket shop where I buy my George Harrison pin

is telling the other customer not to bother.

Just do the National Trust tour, he says.

Just go see John’s house and Paul’s house and forget the rest.

Beside he says, the Dingle is a real shithole.

The guy shrugs, folds up his map and pushes open the door

to join the rest of the tourists in Liverpool.

This is the moment I make my decision.

When we ask about a better map,

the guy at the counter tell us there are really

good taxi tours.

You can take a tour, he says, not have to worry.

Besides, it’s too hard on your own.

I know a guy, he tells me, drives one of those cabs,

he knows more about the Beatles than anyone.

I nod, thank him for the water and leave.

We find out about a transit pass.

We mark up the only map we have.

We set out early the next morning

like explorers.

It’s two miles to the first home.

We tie our shoes tight.

When people look at my pictures they shrug.

It’s just a bunch of old houses.

Graves.

What did you do on vacation, they ask?

They stress the word “do”

I don’t get on the tour bus.

And it’s not a vacation. It’s a trip. There’s a difference.

I want to tell them this but I don’t.

They wouldn’t understand.

When I tried to explain

that finding these people is a kinship

a thing that ties me to the past

to the art that I need.

They shrug and say, I guess, if you’re into that sort of thing.

They don’t see the point.

They ask if I went to see any West End shows.

If I went on the London Eye.

They want better pictures.

I hold the map. We head down Beech Street to Wavertree Road.

He takes the pictures.

By the time we get to Arnold Grove,

where George was born it is raining.

The people that live there

don’t want us around.

We keep our distance on the narrow streets.

We need to see it. We need to know it’s real,

the way we did with the other houses,

the other graves.

We snap just one picture before turning back the way we came.

In the distance, is the Magical Mystery Tour Bus.

It will never fit up those narrow streets.

I wonder what the view is like from up there,

watching a city stream by,

never really seeing it. Never walking its streets

or talking to its people.

He waves to the people in the high seats as the bus passes us.

He tells me, we don’t get on buses.

I nod.

I take out the map.

He takes another picture.

Get me to Penny Lane, he says.

And I do.

Empty Bucket

The man on the train

with his guitar

and his soft singing

is ten times the artist

I could have hoped to have been

today when

I woke up

to nothing

but an empty bucket

for a heart

when the loudspeaker

comes on

telling us that

in the subway it is illegal

to solicit money

I push the bills into his hand

which is chapped

and cracked like a dead starfish.

I tell him thank you

because he reminded me

that the purpose

and the meaning

and the heart most of all

is a thing we carry

and if it is not in my own

hands

then it’s good to know

someone has a goddamn

hold of it.

Ally Malinenko is the author of The Wanting Bone and How To Be An American (Six Gallery Press) as well as the novel This Is Sarah (Bookfish Books). Better Luck Next Year, a poetry collection, is forthcoming from Low Ghost Press. She tweets at @allymalinenko mostly about Doctor Who and David Bowie.