in Lódz

swallow salami in Munich with beer, Liverwurst

on pumpernickel in Berlin, greasy cheese in

          a 3 star Hotel near Syntagma, on white

          bread thick-buttered

Set an example for developing nations, salt,

          sugar, animal fat, coffee tobacco Schnapps

Drop dead faster! make room for

          Chinese guestworkers with alien soybean

          curds green cabbage & rice!

Africans Latins with rice beans & calabash can

          stay thin & crowd in apartments for working

          class foodfreaks—

Not like Western cuisine rich in protein

          cancer heart attack hypertension sweat

          bloated liver & spleen megaly

Diabetes & stroke—monuments to carnivorous

          civilizations

presently murdering Belfast

          Bosnia Cypress Ngorno Karabach Georgia

mailing love letter bombs in

          Vienna or setting houses afire

          in East Germany—have another coffee,

          here’s a cigar.

And this is a plate of black forest chocolate cake,

          you deserve it.

Athens, December 19, 1993

Here We Go ’Round the Mulberry Bush

I got old & shit in my pants

                    shit in my pants

                    shit in my pants

I got old & shit in my pants

                    shit in my pants again

We got old & shit in our pants

                    shit in our pants

                    shit in our pants

We got old & shit in our pants

                    shit in our pants again

You’ll be lucky if you get old

                    & shit in your pants

                    & shit in your pants

You’ll be lucky if you get old

                    & shit in your pants again

January 1, 1994

Tuesday Morn

Waking with aching back at base of spine, walked stiffly to kitchen toilet to pee,

more limber returned to unmade bed, sat to write, dreamlike yesterdays recorded—

From pill dispenser 60 mg Lasix, water pills brings blood to kidney to relieve heart stressed by lung liquid

one white Lanoxin something further steadies the heart, one brown Vasotec for high blood pressure

a round blue potassium pill set aside for breakfast

Next another quaff of water for sleep-dried tongue

& check stove water boiling Tibetan medical powders

Quarter tsp. directly in mouth with hot water, morn & night

Next make the bed—pull out mattress, lift up sheets ballooning in air to settle all four corners,

lay on the orange-diamonded Mexican wool blanket & 3 pillows—push mattress back in place

brush teeth—then prick my finger

a drop, Exac-Tech blood sugar teststrip results noted morn & eve

98 today, a little low, swab pinkie with alcohol pad, another sip medicinal tea—

replace reading glasses with bifocals, brush teeth at front-room sink & looking out window, church door passers-by four floors below

while noon bells ring, clock ticking on the kitchen wall above the toilet cabinet—pull chain

worked this morning, flushed a wobbly porcelain throne—needa get Mike the Super fix pipes—

Back to front room, brush teeth, bowels begin to stir relief, electric shave,

brush out gray dust from razor head, wash face, clear throat’s pale yellow phlegm, blow nose

in paper towel, stick pinkie end with white cream Borofax drop in each nostril, wipe mustache, put on teashirt

Vitalis on short hair around bald head, brush back small beard—& ready for breakfast

in boxer shorts alone at home, pee again, gray sky out window

Sparrows on courtyard dirt, bare Heaven Trees—yesterday’s Times half read on the table where

red tulip blossoms dry in a glass jar—Time to crap & finish Exquisite Corpse—not much came down—

flush, climb ladder and fix the water ball, wash ass change shorts and choose fresh sox—

At last it’s time to eat, clear & safe in the morning—1 P.M.

Salt-free cornflakes from the icebox, brown rice, shredded wheat in a Chinese bowl

filled thereafter with Rice Dream milk—banana that!

Chew and wonder what to read, answer phone, yes, “Peter’s flown to Colorado, Huncke’s rent is due” to patron Hiro—

Finish cereal reading yesterday’s Times “How Mental Patients Sleep Out of Doors”

“ ‘Last time, I was just walking in the rain,’ he said, his hands and lips quivering slightly from the medication he takes.”

Slip a multivitamin pill in my mouth, grab a dish, fruit stewed two nites ago—

Ring Ring the telephone—the office, Bob Rosenthal, Debbie for Jewel Heart Benefit,

Ysrael Lubavitcher fairy returned from his Paris year

Edith not home, Aunt Honey leaving for Australia next week,

she had stroke & splenectomy 1942, long story—

David Rome preparing arts program Halifax during Sawang’s Shambhala confirmation

—Finally 3 P.M. I get dressed go to office couple hours—

Phone Robert Frank? Yup, he’s out, call early evening. I’m free.

January 23, 1994

God

The 18 year old marine “had made his Peace with God.”

A word. A capitol G. Who is God? I thought I saw him once

and heard his voice, which now sounds like my own,

and I’m not God, so who’s God? Jesus Bible God?

Whose Bible? Old JHVH? The 4 letter one without vowels or the 3 letter word God? G-O-D?

Allah? Some say Allah’s great, tho’ mock his name you’re dead!

Zoroaster’s Wise One used to be great, & Mormons’ version got absolute pedigrees & Genealogies.

Is Pope’s God same as Southern Baptist Inerrancy televangelists?

How’s that square with the Ayatollah’s Allah, Billy Graham Nixon’s on his knees, Ronald Reagan’s Armageddon deity?

What of Lubavitcher Rabbi’s God refusing land for peace exchange?

Is Yassir Arafat’s God same as Shamir’s? What about Magna Mater?

What happened to Aphrodite, Hecate, Diana many breasted at Ephesus,

round bottom’d Willendorf Venus older than Jahweh & Allah & Zoroaster’s dream!

older than Confucius, Lao Tzu, Buddha & the 39 patriarchs.

Is any God real? Is there one God? How come so many Gods—

Fighting eachother, poor Mayans, Aztecs, Peruvian sun worshippers? Hopi peyote dreamers round the half moon fire.