For seven years, Worcester poet Nicholas Earl Davis has hosted the Dirty Gerund Poetry Show at Ralph�s Diner, 148 Grove St., alongside Alex Charalam- bides. The show takes place every Mon- day, and taking a seat by the side bar of the diner, under the dim lights and taxidermy, a large portion of Worcester�s poetry community performs their pieces in company with headlining acts. Some of the words are dark, some are hilarious, but all are real.



Much like Davis�s work.



One such piece, �Talking Worcester Blues,� has inspired an unusual collaboration between the poet, artist Eamon Gillen, Jessica Walsh of Worcester Wares and the restaurant staff of deadhorse hill.



�The poem isn�t a love letter to the city,� said Davis, sitting in the back corner of Ralph�s Diner beneath a large taxidermy deer head. The antlers make strange shadow shapes on the wall behind him. �It�s kind of like a pep talk. I�ve been frustrated with the city and wanted to leave and even tried to leave, actively. I did leave. I didn�t finish it, I wrote the second half when I came back. The inspiration is that our city is a tough mother [expletive deleted], and this is her advice.�



Walsh heard Davis read the poem months prior. She was familiar with the poet through the Dirty Gerund, but Davis read �Talking Worcester Blues� at The Sort of Late Show with Shaun Connolly one evening while Walsh was a guest. The poem � one line in particular � had a lasting effect on the Worcester Wares owner.



�What�s so great about the poem is that it�s so very Worcester,� she said. � It touches on the things that are so Worcester, but that line, �triple-decker decadent,� I feel like it�s such an amazing line, there is something to it. The three words themselves are just words I have never heard together, but part of what makes Worcester so awesome is that we�re both gritty � I know the word �gritty� is used too much � but we also have this industrial past and this ownership and pride over it. I don�t think �triple-decker decadent� is making fun of that, I think it�s owning that. People are so excited about this. People are proud to have grown up in a triple decker and this celebrates that.�



So, Walsh got the ball rolling for a line of items in Worcester Wares. She started with artist Gillen, who had crafted a chalkboard mural in her store previously and he began designs inspired by the concept of �triple decker decadence.�



�Living in Worcester most of my life, I�ve grown up in and rented enough three-decker homes to be able to draw them from memory very easily,� Gillen said. �Between this and the banners and lettering, I do often as a full-time tattooer I put it all together to try and make a unique readable image that could work on a shirt, pin, print or anything else it would be used for.�



Worcester Wares currently has several of Gillen�s designs on hand, with tee shirts, pins, stickers, totes and prints (of Gillen�s imagery as well as of the full Talking Worcester Blues poem) available in store. The collaboration didn�t end there however, as the group partnered with deadhorse hill,�who now have a cocktail and dessert inspired by the poem.



��Triple Decker� was a slam dunk,� said Sean Woods, beverage director and co-owner of the restaurant. �We could have made it into a burger, we could have taken a sandwich and called it a triple decker. I thought it was great, these community ideas and including more and more people. Because of this, a poet isn�t trapped in a coffee house, people can see this. It�s living in a restaurant. Everyone is mingling and the common denominator is Worcester.�



A copy of the poem comes with each of the restaurant�s menus, but can be overlooked. When the dessert is ordered, however, it comes on a vintage Worcester plate with a large version of the poem for guests to read.



�As a poet, specifically, and as an artist in general, it�s really easy to underestimate your own work,� said Davis. �It�s really easy to not think about it as a commercially-viable option. I�m not going to retire off a tee shirt, but just to have a way to buy a meal or two off of it is just incredible.�



Davis said he was ecstatic to be a part of the project, to have a line of items inspired by his words, but the deadhorse inclusion was particularly special.



�I�m a huge food nerd,� laughed Davis. �There are things on their menu that have been on my bucket list, that I�ve wanted to try and watched Youtube videos on. Getting published on their menu is bigger to me than if it was like Harvard Press. Being next to a three-year aged Spanish ham is a bigger honor than being next to the biggest author in the country. As a chubby food nerd, that�s a bigger honor.�



While Davis writes a lot, he said �Talking Worcester Blues� is his only Worcester-centric work to date, but it is obvious the city means a lot to him, and he describes his vision of the city in interesting terms.



�She is that patron at the bar,� he said. �That person at the bar, probably an older lady, she might buy you a shot or you might buy her a shot, but everyone else is giving her space. But for some reason you catch a glint in her eye and decide to go talk to her. She�s probably got at least one good thing to tell me. Then you realize that she�s the reason the bar was built. She�s the patron saint.�



So what, according to Davis, does the line all of this focuses on � �you need to be triple decker decadent� � mean?



�I�ve been there,� said Davis with his hands outstretched. �That�s every time you�re at a party in some rundown triple decker and you realize that you�re living better than any other mother[expletive deleted], no matter what�s in their pocket. That�s triple-decker decadence. Looking around and saying ,we�re drinking 30 racks of cheap shit, but I look around and I�m in love with everyone in this room, we�re all in love with each other and we�re all beautiful. It�s better than anything could be. It�s that feeling.�



The �Triple Decker Decadence� line of items is available at Worcester Wares, DCU Door 22. �Talking Worcester Blues� cocktail and dessert are available at deadhorse hill, 281 Main St. You can catch Davis every Monday at The Dirty Gerund Poetry Show at Ralph�s Rock Diner, 148 Grove St. Davis will hold a release show for his �Nicholas Earl Davis is Getting Drunk with Dead Stick and Hambone� record at Bull Mansion, 55 Pearl St., on Feb. 24. The album takes spoken word and slam poetry as an American art form and mashes it with American, bluegrass, folk and country music. This includes a Paula Abdul bluegrass remix with a poem about a one night stand.