WORCESTER — Worcester-based humorist poet Joe Fusco detailed the trials and tribulations he experienced as he sought work and eventually retired during the pandemic. It’s all in his latest release titled Pondering the Pandemic during The Rust Years. The “rust years” in the book’s title is how 67-year-old Fusco describes “senior citizenship.”

“It’s 90 degrees and I’m stuffed inside a grey pin-striped suit whose pants were a perfect fit ten years ago,” wrote Fusco in Face to Face, a poem that appears on page 12. The pin-striped suit in the poem was what Fusco actually wore when interviewing for a position as a Coke salesman in 2019. 

“’Dressed for Success’…dressed to sweat!” he continued, then ends with the following:

God, I hate this b*llshit!

But, I’m too lonely to retire.

I shake hands with both interviewers who promise to get back to me soon. 

I’ve heard this line before but thank them for their 

time, walk to my car, drive to the beach, read some

Chekov, then spill some soda.


Fusco wrote his latest of four books with the added downtime he was afforded during the pandemic. 

“I kind of had a little more time on my hands. I retired in the midst of it and I just thought I would get a little bit of a sense – in an amusing way – how things went for me during the pandemic,” explained Fusco. “I kind of had a job, lost a job, tried to get a job, got a job, left a job, then retired.”

Courtesy photo.

Fusco spent the majority of his career working as a manager and buyer at various supermarkets, including Victory, Hannaford and Goretti’s Supermarket in Millbury. In Notes from the Corona-Bunker (3/18/20), a poem from his latest release, he recalls a time when a man tried to sell him toilet paper from the back of his truck in a supermarket parking lot in Worcester during the height of the pandemic:


In the supermarket parking lot Monday, a man in a 

brown coat and winter cap approached me.

‘Need some T.P.,’ he inquired.

Out of curiosity and boredom, I followed him to the trunk of his car.

There sat stacks of Scott single rolls like gold bars at Fort Knox.

 

Fusco began writing poetry in high school, but didn’t really get into it in a public way until he went to open mics after moving to Worcester about 36 years ago. Worcester is a common theme that appears in Fusco’s work, so much so that he’s featured in Worcester Magazine on a monthly basis. In Dirt and Ice, which is on page 60 of Pondering the Pandemic during The Rust Years, Fusco addresses the fears he and other locals have about the rapid development of the city, which has been reinventing itself with new additions such as Polar Park. 

“I got to know a lot of poets from the city, a lot of urban people who lived in the city all their lives, and we have mixed feelings about what’s going on. We enjoy the fact that new buildings are coming and it’s getting a glossier look, but at the same time we like to make sure that some of the old neighborhoods and the people who have lived there for a number of years are still able to live in the city,” said Fusco. 

If you are interested in seeing Fusco read his latest work, he’ll be appearing at the following locations in the coming months:

  • Sunday, Nov. 7, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.: Fusco will be reading at Annie’s Clark Brunch on 943 Main Street, Worcester
  • Saturday, Dec. 4 at 1:00 p.m.: Fusco will have a 50-minute feature at Booklover’s Gourmet on 72 East Main in Webster 

If you would like to learn more about Fusco, go to his website joesyellowpad.com.