The poet takes the reader on a journey from teenage angst in the suburbs to the his maturing travels highlighting his experiences and observations of the city and his return home.
The opening poems: Modern Americana & The Gate immediately place us where Peter V. Dugan lives in those poems. He has us driving into that Cul-de-Sac, seeing the rows of houses and feeling closed in as we see the suburban sprawl.
In Catholic School Dance we are transported back, back to when we thought of nothing more than friends, cigarettes, mood-altering substances, and the opposite sex. It brought back to life how it was something just to hold that someone!
Peter does not reminisce or longingly remember; instead he brings back to life the days we lived long ago. He bravely and honestly tells it like it is in, 11th Grade Geography Lesson, in which we are there, with him, as he stands while everyone else ducks as the gleam of the gun protrudes from the car window. How fragile and senseless life is starkly made clear to us through the unblinking eyes of the poet.
Excerpt
Modern Americana
This is the land of freedom of choice:
Coke or Pepsi,
light beer or dark,
less filling, tastes great,
Republican or Democrat,
horse manure, cow manure,
different crap,
same smell.
America is now a pie
divided
into eight slices,
but, there are twelve at the table,
and three of them want seconds.
It’s all a game.
George and Martha never had a son.
Truth and illusion;
it doesn’t make a difference,
we still sit in the waiting room
expecting delivery.
Money is the new Messiah,
greed is the national creed,
“In G-O-D (gold or dollars) we trust,”
but, credit cards accepted.
The government of the people
has been bought and sold.
It’s strictly business,
nothing personal.
The heart of America
stopped beating,
the blood clotted,
no longer red,
now medi-ochre,
and pumped
by the pacemaker
of public opinion.
And still there are those that believe
that the only real American patriots
are true blue and white
or least act white,
and all the stars
are in Hollywood.
Professional Reviews
Surviving the Suburbs
While reading A Cul-de-Sac Off of Main Street by Peter V. Dugan I was drawn in by the brilliance of his work. Peter uses laymen’s terms, everyday language, and yet his poems are elevated, and they elevate us, those that read his powerful work. Throuthout the book I am riding with the poet as he shows me so much of the stuff that makes up what we call life. We are given a personal tour, which says; “Hey, take a look, you don’t want to miss this!” As I place the book down I feel grateful for the experience Peter has given me; the ability to safeful view what he has seen and then go back to my nine-to-five life, and yet I am left with a twinge of sadness that somewhere, back there in my own past, I may have left the best part of me.
Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan Suffolk County Poet Laureate 2009-2011
