Send me rice
Said Developed Nations’ skeleton
Sell your bones for dice
Said the Ayatollah skeleton
Die writer die
Said Joe Stalin’s skeleton
That’s no lie
Said the Middle Kingdom skeleton
We swallowed Tibet
Said the Dalai Lama skeleton
Indigestion’s whatcha get
Said the World Chorus skeleton
That’s their fate
Said the USA skeleton
Gotta save Kuwait
Said the Petrochemical skeleton
Roar Bombers roar!
Said the Psychedelic skeleton
Smoke a dinosaur
Said Nancy’s skeleton
Just say No
Said the Rasta skeleton
Blow Nancy Blow
Said Demagogue skeleton
Don’t smoke Pot
Said Alcoholic skeleton
Let your liver rot
Said the Junkie skeleton
Can’t we get a fix?
Said the Big Brother skeleton
Jail the dirty pricks
Said the Mirror skeleton
Hey good looking
Said the Electric Chair skeleton
Hey what’s cooking?
Said the Talkshow skeleton
Fuck you in the face
Said the Family Values skeleton
My family values mace
Said the N.Y. Times skeleton
That’s not fit to print
Said the C.I.A. skeleton
Cantcha take a hint?
Said the Network skeleton
Believe my lies
Said the Advertising skeleton
Don’t get wise!
Said the Media skeleton
Believe you Me
Said the Couch-potato skeleton
What me worry?
Said the TV skeleton
Eat sound bites
Said the Newscast skeleton
That’s all Goodnight
February 12–16, 1995
“You know what I’m saying?”
I was shy and tender as a 10 year old kid, you know what I’m saying?
Afraid people’d find me out in Eastside H.S. locker room you know what I’m saying?
Earl had beautiful hips & biceps when he took off his clothes to put on gym shorts you know what I’m saying?
His nose was too long, his face like a ferret but his white body
Proportioned thin, muscular definition thighs & breasts, with boy’s nipples you know what I’m saying? uncircumcised
& strange, goyishe beauty you know what I’m saying, I was dumbstruck—
at Golden 50th H.S. Reunion I recognized him, bowed, & exchanged pleasant words, you know what I’m saying?
He was retired, wife on his arm, you know what I’m saying?
& Millie Peller “The Class Whore” warmest woman at our last Silver 25th Reunion alas had passed away
She was nice to me a scared gay kid at Eastside High, you know what I’m saying?
December 23, 1995
Bowel Song
You’ve been coughing for weeks
still you don’t sit on your cushion & visualize Bam
You’ve been in the hospital just last week
still you read the newspapers
Recovered from congestive heart failure,
you took 7 hours last week to read the Sunday N.Y Times
Listen, your days are numbered, why waste the essence of your clock
How will you feel when you can’t breathe?
What’ll you do the last six minutes?
Where’ll you go for the next 6 hours?
What good, half dozen gay porno films then?
You can hardly catch your breath now, why jack off limp prick?
Your master gives good advice, you listen, follow it couple weeks
then lapse into old habits, waste time on the toilet reading books,
at the kitchen sink 3am washing dishes daydreaming.
If you don’t get ready now, what’ll you do at the Black Hole
You wanna get born a pretty little girl & go through agony?
Wanna get caught between snakes coupling?
In between death and life, still wanna get laid?
What makes you lazy? you’re not on your deathbed yet,
if you’ve an ounce of strength, use it to look inside.
Clear your mind, you won’t escape the Great Sickness
the Immortal Plague, Grand Disaster continuous to eternity—
Whatever it is, whyn’cha figure it out?
Wanna drift off & become a newspaper headline,
what good favorable publicity in the bardo?
Allen Ginsberg says, these words’ll get you nowhere
these jokes won’t be funny when everyone leaves the seven exits.
January 2, 1996
Popular Tunes
What do I hear in my ear
approaching my 70th year—
Echoes of popular tunes, old rhymes
familiar runes
Songs my mother taught me
“O tell me pretty maiden
are there any more at home
like you?”
Cousin Claire heard on the Newark radio
Aunt Elanor played on her Bronx phonograph
piercing Bell Song soprano notes,