Poetry
• Good Americans - Linda
Albertano
• Sacred Mother - Vessy
Mink
• Strike against war - Helen
Keller
• They Couldn't Take Away... -
Bill Fleeman
• Ad nauseum - Pano
Douvos
• Never in my Life - Barbata
Artie Liggit
• A Folksy Kind of Guy -
Fast Eddie
• Concrete and Clay - Joanna
Silva
Good
Americans
by
Linda Albertano
Good Americans are kind
to dogs and children
Good Americans give to
the thoroughly needy.
Good Americans are
massively patriotic.
Fine Americans express
such tender sympathies.
Good Americans
have never harmed a living creature.
Good
Americans lead basically blameless
lives.
Good Americans are proud of their
personal karmas.
Upstanding Americans never
hear the screams.
Good Americans tend
to their own little gardens.
Good Americans
don’t count their pit bulls
before
they’ve hatched.
Good Americans breed
BMWs for pleasure.
Responsible Americans
never drive home through Watts.
Good
Americans know that nothing is sacred but
style.
Good americans shop at Walmart or
Lucky’s or Saks.
Good Americans own
cellphones and portable computers.
But loyal
Americans own no lampshades of human
flesh.
Good Americans are aggressively
apathetic.
Good Americans can’t hear
the children scream.
Good Americans make a
business of keeping their hands
clean.
God-fearing Americans are only doing
their jobs.
Good Americans are not
their brother’s keepers.
Good Americans
wear blindfolds on their blindfolds.
Good
Americans have front row seats in
Heaven.
Decent Americans don’t hear the
tortured screams.
Good Americans ask
only that God grant them
the serenity to
accept the things
they cannot
change
and the ability to ignore the things
they can!
Good
Americans.
*************
Soft
Subtle
Sacred
Mother
Ancient Tree
Piercing
California blue
skys.
Her
strength
Unwavering.
Strong
Shoulders
Impressed
With
childrens faces
Tears
evaporating
Into the sweet
Spot
Of her giving
essence.
Mother breathes
life
Unto us
all...
On Gracious
Nature
Storms and
thunder!
Oh my sisters and
brothers
I long to
deliver
Each breath of my
birth
In honor of
her
Lover of
Peace
Swims in all the
seas
Intelligent
Creature
- Vessy
Mink
*************
Strike
against war,
for without you no battles can
be fought!
Strike against manufacturing
shrapnel and gas bombs
and all other tools of
murder!
Strike against preparedness that
means death
and misery to millions of human
beings!
Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an
army of destruction!
Be heroes in an army of
construction.
– Helen
Keller
*************
They
Couldn't Take Away...
By Bill
Fleeman
they took away
the
gas house & grand
hotel,
then the venice west
where
we said our sacred
poetry.
but they couldn't
take
away the
Muse.
she lived in every
promenade
store front pad, in
every
grain of sand
on
venice
beach.
we absorbed Her,
ink
of our
blood.
we took Her with
us
when we
left,
to
colorado,
michigan,
and
new
york.
************
Ad
nauseum
By
Pano Douvos
Defense secretary Donald
says to Marines
“… you should be
proud of your service
as long as you
live”
because of course if you
don’t live
and are
killed
you won’t feel pride or much of
anything
there in your body
bag
so we will be proud for
you
and those patriots who follow
you
in the proposed war
also
for the heroes in all future
wars
ad
infinitum
as flags wave and drums
roll
ad nauseum ad
nauseum
************
NEVER
IN MY LIFE HAVE I WORRIED THAT I GAVE TOO MUCH. BECAUSE YOU CAN’T GIVE
TOO MUCH, AND, IT ALWAYS, ALWAYS COMES BACK TO YOU, IN ONE FORM OR ANOTHER.
NOTHING IS EVER WASTED- ESPECIALLY AFFECTION- AND SINCE LIFE NEVER ENDS, YOU
FIND YOURSELF GIVING- EVEN AFTER DEATH. I REPEAT- YOU NEVER LOSE A LOVE. IF IT
IS YOURS, IT WILL COME BACK TO YOU. IT WILL
RETURN.
-Barbata Artie Ligget,
(Suzy Williams’
mom)
*************
A
FOLKSY KIND OF GUY
By Fast
Eddie
young king
george
was a folksy kind of
guy
he had his mind in deeper oil
pools
and his eyes in the
sky
young king george
loved his war toys,
too
keeping them plentiful and very
nearby
didn’t want
anyone
who might become
aware
of all those deepest dark
secrets
to let out with the hue and
cry.
young king george
had things nicely all
arranged
kept himself well
surrounded
with other similar
strange
all who were equipped
with the minotaur
brain.
young king george
disdained flirtin’ and
dancin’
but, to each his
own
just so long as blue blooded
issue
was by star -light
extremely precisely
arranged.
of course young king
george
never did any
work
he didn’t see
why
better to stalk the sacred
stags
with diamond tipped
arrows
golden of
sheath
but a very thin light green hidden
underneath
young king george
apparently did miss the final glorious
ascension
however unwillingly the media do
say
chased a newly mother
female
into a cave or a woodsy
bower
on the last hour of
day
not seen since, either at play or at
bay
which according to the new virile
tanist
is perfectly and legally
okay.
**************
Concrete
and
Clay
By
Joanna Silva
I Catch a glimpse of the
setting sun
between a brick
building
and a cluster of overly groomed palm
trees.
Have you seen the full moon over the
beach in Venice tonight?
Do you ever
look
up?
Can't
you see anything that shines
unless its
behind glass?
Glass cannot save
us.
Do you know about the eclipse
tonight?
Do you need four walls and a silver
screen to know?
I walk on the
beach
and the
wind
blows the sand against my
skin
and into my
eyes.
I chew the grains between my teeth
and reach for the paper bag in my back
pocket
so that I can swallow the
dirt.
I come to a brick wall and slide my
fingers across it
where the palm trees cast
shadows
that bathe the red bricks with
shades of
grey
and
I
wonder
at
how
concrete
can
so firmly
frame
clay.
Posted: Sat
- March 1, 2003 at 07:03 PM