Giancarlo Malchiodi

DROP-GATE

The man who owns
the only store on Mott Street
without
a security drop-gate
is in every movie or teevee show
filmed in Chinatown.

In the “Brooklyn Zoo” music video,
shot at the arcade
where I electrocuted the dancing chicken
in-between games of Space Invaders,
rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard
locks him in the trunk of a car
soon to explode.

He's telephoning in Eraser, slinging fruit on NYPD Blue,
and somehow, in Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon,
you'll find him though
the whole thing was filmed
on a California backlot
faking some mythical Chinese community
where enlightenment is earned
by rescuing big-boobed, former-Prince proteges
from the evil Shogun of Sho'Nuff.

The stone-cast buddhas and waving cats
in his shop window
don't earn him film roles.
The jade donuts
tourists sport around their necks
don't earn that Actor's Guild card.
No...
He's the man
who owns
the only
store on Mott Street
without
a security drop-gate.

Giancarlo Malchiodi is forever a child of the Lower East Side who decided at age thirteen to become a teacher and has spent nearly thirty years In that vocation.  Finding escape and hope through great literature and the adventures of super-heroes, Giancarlo marvels even more at the brave labor — especially in recent years – of all frontline workers including those in education.  When not teaching or reading or writing, Giancarlo can often be found wandering the streets of this great City to discover it anew, or 125+ feet below sea level where his recreational passion for SCUBA diving led to his training and certification as a professional Dive Master.