Go to Filene’s, go to the Hub, go to Slattery’s, Boston. Call out
the name Willie Loman and see what happens!

                                  --From Death Of  A Salesman

Willie Loman!

Not on the database.
Kept behind the half moon
credit window at Filene’s.

Don’t know him.
From the woman folding nylons in Lingerie.

Who.
With a Russian accent
in Men’s Accessories.

Did he slip out through “Employees Only”
past men’s button down shirts and bathrobes
scattered on the floor?

Maybe he’s at Bloomingdale’s
checking the competition.

Willie Loman.

Sorry, I don’t know him
The manager, elegant
offering her hand.

Matthew Sisson

- from The English Journal

MATTHEW SISSON’s work has appeared in The Larcom Review, Poetry Motel, The English Journal, East Of Eden, and the anthology Mercy Of Tides. He is the poetry editor of the trade journal Modern Steel Construction and owns and operates a steel fabricating and erecting business in Boston.