Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Anti-Nuke Poem


i hear heaven in my washing machine ears in my piccolo
and generations of voice in my ears i'm
tired and unaffected on winter roads of greek television commercials
and rain on the roof is no encouragement to my taxidermist's duck
why won't you cease to lie
when you tell me my phone bill is due
and i must pay under threat of eviction at armageddon
armageddon atomic bombs without fireplace
armageddon starvation without french fries
armageddon the disease of farting window panes
armageddon the car with no wheels on a collapsed freeway
armageddon running the road to ruin up your nose the last time
armageddon turn on the tv there's no cartoons

the face in the mirror shaving has a blade held close to it
this is not a joke this is real even if the image
could never cut itself
you move the mirror and image after image holds a blade
after awhile it seems abstract
after awhile you ignore the abstraction
at armageddon you can't cut yourself once




from Thebes (1991)



1 comment:

  1. This has got a real Allen Ginsberg quality, vibrant, energetic, fearless in spite of the subject.

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