They kept on playing
I asked them to stop
he said
but they kept on playing
the gig inside the black hole
of my eyeball
this eye here
Okay China White be warned
I say a full arm's length away
full of love and grief
before we're all blasted
away with your unholy vision
where the bone archangel Samhain
and his pig initiates
in a spray of blood
square across the jaw
crucify Christ again
on the wings of a U.S. bomber
(an imperfect cross
but adequate
to the four corners of the earth
and climbing above the stillborn bodies
of seven unnamed Jewish babies
rotting in the sun)
but everyone dies
my son arm in arm
I say even the aborted suicide
he won't let himself be talked to
there ain't no fuckin freedom here
he shrieks insisting on
the final blessing of L'Artiste
finding himself alone in the fire
he keeps playing
keeps playing with the red stub
of his tail
and all the rats of hell
blink their garnet eyes while
he plays they sing
life stinks
.
11 comments:
You've captured the angst of youth, while keeping a sympathetic, and understanding distance - you've written about it without judgment of it, and that's hard to do!
This was inspired years ago by the cover of a Black Flag record jacket.... But I thought the Circle Jerks pic was cuter for PT!
Cool - I like the fact that I never know what to expect when I come here. I think you really captured the feeling, the angst of youth that punk expresses so well in its rawest form.
Both Black Flag and the Circle Jerks were great concerts and always put on great shows. During one Black Flag show that the cops busted up (at a venue called The Monestary)a girl that I knew was too shy to give Henrt Rollins, the lead singer, a book of poetry she wrote. So, while the cops were causing mayhem first inside the concert hall and quickly outside soon after, I gave him this girl's book of poetry amidst their pushing people out in full riot gear. They threatened to arrest me for not moving fast enough. Later that night we went to the SLCPD station house to find and wait for fiends that did get cuffed and taken away. We left when we found out they would be there over night. So while we walked through the PD parking lot on the way back to our cars, we put Black Flag stickers that said things like Black Flag, COPS SUCK, and other niceties on many cop cars. The Circle Jerks shows were largely uneventful at least in Utah. Legend has it their shows would get pretty rowdy with the police often involved in California.
BTW, the pic illustrates a style of dance called skanking that was often done in "the pit" or when one climbed on stage and was about to fling their body off the stage and into the crowd below.
Anyway, the poem is good. There was also a punk group called Samhian, incidently.
First of all, you always thrill and surprise!
Now the poem...
Some very vivid end of days..images in here.
Stirring, with just enough political satire.
The last stanza..the devil with a little red stub..
The devil as a little man..with rars as his minions...
Very intersting visual.
Thank God for you, pepek
PB: Very interesting information. (The things mothers--thankfully--are unaware of much of the time...)! I wonder if Rollins read the girl's poetry which you so gallantly delivered?
You may have worn a 9-inch mohawk and a black spiked jacket...but your heart (and your soul, still wearing the mohawk) were always gentle and good and caring. As they are today. I have ALWAYS been proud of you, and who you were then, and are now.
And to the rest of you, all friends, thanks for all the fish? (Isn't that a line from ... who? I am having a senior moment here....
Douglas Adams!
Fascinating stuff - you are a woman of many talents - including as a mother! All power to you! And yes, 'The Restaurant at the End of the Earth' wasn't it? Or am I too having a senior mo?
Gripping poem. I love coming here.
Dear Pam, you started it, with your family of mohawks! Love, me.
Ah, my dancing days!
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