So much forgetten already
So much forgotten
So much to forget
Once the idea of purity
born, all was lost
irrevocably
The Black Musician
in a house up the hill
Nigger in the woodpile
Skeleton in the closet
Sorry. Didn't mean you.
An old man, someone's
daughter
Arises
& sees us still in the room
of off-key piano & bad
paintings
him off to work
&new wife arriving
(The candle-forests of
Notre-Dame)
beggar nuns w/ moving
smiles, small velvet sacks
& cataleptic eyes
straying to the gaudy
Mosaic calendar
Windows
I write like this
to seize you
give me your love, your
tire eyes, sad for
delivery
A small & undiscover'd
park -- we ramble
And the posters scream
safe revolt
& the tired walls barely
fall, graffiti into
dry cement sand
an overfed vacuum
dust-clock
I remember freeways
Summer, beside you
Ocean -- brother
Storms passing
electric fires in the night
"rain, night, misery --
the back-ends of wagons"
Shake it! Wanda,
fat stranded swamp
Woman
We still need you
Shake your roly-poly
Thighs inside that
Southern tent
So what.
It was really wild
She started nude & put
on her clothes.
An old & cheap hotel
w/ bums in the lobby
genteel bums of satisfied
poverty
Across the street, a
famous pool-hall
where the actors meet
former ace -- home of
beat musicians
beat poets & beat
wanderers
in the Zen tradition
from China to the
Subway
in 4 easy lifetimes
Weeping, he left his pad
on orders from police
& furnishings hauled
away, all records &
momentos, & reporters
calculating tears &
curses for the press:
"I hope the Chinese junkies
get you"
& they will
for the poppy
rules the world
That handsome gentle
flower
Sweet Billy!
Do you remember
the snake
your lover
tender in the tumbled
brush-weed
sand & cactus
I do.
And I remember
Stars in the shotgun
night
eating pussy
til the mind runs
clean
Is it rolling, God
in the Persian Night?
"There's a palace
in the canyon
where you & I
were born
Now I'm a lonely Man
Let me back into
the Garden
Blue Shadows
of the Canyon
I met you
& now you're gone
& now my dream is gone
Let me back into your Garden
A man searching
for lost Paradise
Can seem a fool
to those who never
sought the other world
Where friends do lie & drift
Insanely in
Their own private gardens"
The cunt bloomed
& the paper walls
Trembled
A monster arrived
in the mirror
To mock the room
& its fool
alone
Give me songs
to sing
& emerald dreams
to dream
& I'll give you love
unfolding
Sun
underwater, it was
immediately strange
& familiar
the black boy's
from the boat, fins & mask,
Nostrils bled liquid
crystal blood
as they rose to surface
Rose & moved strong
in their wet world
Below was a Kingdom
Empire of still sand
& yes, party-colored
fishes
-- they are the last
to leave
The gay sea
I eat you
avoiding your wordy
bones
& spit out pearls
The little girl gave
little cries of surprise
as the club struck
her sides
I was there
By the fire in the
Phonebooth
I saw them charge
& heard the indian
war-scream
felt the adrenalin
of flight-fear
the exhilaration of terror
sloshed drunk in
the flashy battle blood
Naked we come
& bruised we go
nude pastry
for the slow soft worms
below
This is my poem
for you
Great flowing funky flower'd beast
Great perfumed wreck of hell
Great good disease
& summer plague
Great god-damned shit-ass
Mother-fucking freak
You lie, you cheat,
you steal, you kill
you drink the Southern
Madness swill
of greed
you die utterly & alone
Mud up to your braces
Someone new in your
knickers
& who would that be?
You know
You know more
than you let on
Much more than you betray
Great slimy angel-whore
you've been good to me
You really have
been swell to me
Tell them you came & saw
& look'd into my eyes
& saw the shadow
of the guard receding
Thoughts in time
& out of season
The Hitchhiker stood
by the side of the road
& levelled his thumb
in the calm calculus
of reason
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