hilary sideris – south broadway press

Luigi Mangione

BY HILARY SIDERIS

^{On December 4, 2024, 27-year-old engineer Luigi Mangione assassinated Brian
Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare—who had made millions denying claims—
outside New York’s Midtown Hilton.}

Baby Lulu, as they call him,
has many TikTok wives. One in Beijing

cooks puttanesca with penne.
My husband, which is Luigi Mangione,

she says, stirring red pepper in her sauce,
needs comfort food from his culture.

Others cut wedding cake with their hero,
whose black lashes & threaded brows,

so tender & misunderstood, accentuate
the necessary beauty of his deed.

Does his anachronistic name kindle
some ancient hope, conjure a revolution

fought on Garibaldi’s side against
a crooked pope? Lesson Learned,

The Wall Street Journal intones,
Tighter Security Priority for CEOs.

Hilary Sideris is the author of Calliope (Broadstone Books), Liberty Laundry (Dos Madres Press), Animals in English (Dos Madres Press), The Silent B (Dos Madres Press), Un Amore Veloce (Kelsay Books), The Inclination to Make Waves (Big Wonderful LLC,) and Most Likely to Die (Poets Wear Prada Press).

She flaunts her pomegranate-
purple impulse-purchase mini-push
mower in her duplex backyard,
our mother of contradictions

from Depression-era Texas, women’s
libber, cheapskate even when it comes
to shoes, of which she has hundreds
of pairs. Why pay a man? Plus, here’s
a chance to show the shape she’s in

and get some sun. A younger, maybe
married neighbor suggests swinging
by on his John Deere. Tactical, tactful,

she declines. She knows the road
such favors lead a woman down.

Hilary Sideris has recently published poems in The American Journal of Poetry, Bellevue Literary Review, Free State Review, Gravel, The Lake, Main Street Rag, Rhino, Room, Salamander, and Southern Poetry Review. Her new book Animals in English, poems after Temple Grandin, is forthcoming from Dos Madres Press.

Category: hilary sideris

Luigi Mangione | Hilary Sideris

Luigi Mangione

BY HILARY SIDERIS

81 – Hilary Sideris