by Marcus Colasurdo

** A friend of mind from France visited me in Hazleton (Pa.) recently and I made him some pierogies for dinner. He looked at me like he’d never seen the like of such food before;
“These look like giant crepes,” he said.
“Crepes?!?” I said… “Of course they’re not crepes, you barbarian, they’re, uh, they’re–

McAdoo Manholes
They’re Frackville frisbees
Tamaqua tamales
Hazleton hardhats
They’re Freeland flapjacks
Shamokin bus tokens
Slatington surfboards
Weatherly whirligigs
Dunmore drywall
They’re Coaldale crab cakes
Hometown hula-hoops
Nuesquehoning nightgowns
Wilkes-Barre windshields
Shenendoah shingles
They’re Mahoney City cajones
Centralia crystals
Lehighton lobsters
Palmerton pell grants
They’re Pottsville pop tarts-

You can have them with prunes
you can have them with chives-
You can add enough onions
to make you cry-
Even jalapeño goes good
with bingo-
And though your belly
might be achin’ for bacon,
here comes Mrs. T.
and she ain’t fakin-
So any day of the year,
I’m asking you please;
just make mine the original kind
and double up on the cheese!

Them’s pierogies, mon ami,
them’s pierogies!

Marcus Colasurdo is the author of 11 books. Over the years, he has worked as varied as Los Angeles taxi-cab driver to Job Corps counselor. He is the founder of the Soul Kitchen, a community meals and clothing program (in Baltimore, MD and Hazleton, PA) that currently feeds 400 folks monthly and provides various other much-needed items to needy folks in those communities.

Also by Marcus Colasurdo
Sanitation
Anthracite
Letter of Transit

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