Photo of Rita Rose with Therese Bertsch and the late John F. McMullen by
Cristina Ortolani

 

Bukowski’s Got Nothing on You!
          For John F. McMullen

Johnny Mac hosts
A dynamic radio internet show
It features poets and personalities
Moi included!
His Podcast carries more content
Then Charles Bukowski’s unwieldy mailbag!

The Dirty poet’s stanzas
Stack like sorted mail
Words are static and snaily
Johnny Mac’s delivery
Is instantaneous; has weight
And resonates with life!

Simply said:
Johnny Mac—Bukowski’s Got Nothing
On You!

John is a Techno Guru
He designs, secures, and sorts data
The angry bard’s specialty
Is hard drinking
And separating Dills from Gherkins!

Literary artisan McMullen
Finds relaxation in a few beers
At the neighborhood bar
The other—
He is boorish and disorderly
Lives for dirty bar-room fights!

If they were competing
At a poetry slam
Charles’ words would be crass and silver
While Johns’ a precious gold!

Simply said:
Johnny Mac: Bukowski’s Got Nothing
On You!

Poets McMullen and Bukowski
Are diametrically opposed
When it comes to women and life
Yet they do align
In poetic eloquence and style
Persistent threads
Stitch their poems together

In verse, these two wordsmiths’
Love for poetry
Is a sensibility shared
To bring this poem to a head
This is a sample of their approach—

My soul has bled on every page
With nothing left to hide
As a bird, I am free—uncaged
So do not berate or act snide
For if what I write makes you scoff
Then close the goddam book
And Fuck the Hell off!

Simply said:
Johnny Mac, Bukowski’s Got nothing
On You!

 

Rita ‘Rusty’ Rose ita ‘Rusty’ Rose is a globally published Long Island poet/author and a beloved iconic LGBTQ+ Civil Rights activist. She has been bestowed with The Lifetime Achievement Award for poetry and community activism and presently serves as Poet Laureate of the Long Island LGBTQ Community, a position held since 2018. In 2025 and 2024, she was voted Best Poet of Long Island, named by Four Leaf Bank and Bethpage Federal Credit Union. The Suffolk County Legislature has recognized her with proclamations for exceptional poetry and advocacy. Her poems are stylistically diverse; running the gamut from serious to lighthearted. They celebrate her heritage along with facets of life; including death. Her most recent works include Flower Poems: Personalities in Bloom, Veranda Sundown, Stonewall’s Legacy (w/ Mark Rosen) and Asylum: From the Inside.