I -- A Pleasant Afternoon for Michael Brownstein and **** GallupOne day poets and ears sat under a green-striped Chau-
tauqua tent in Aurora
listening to Black spirituals, tapping their feet, appreciating
words singing by in mountain winds
on a pleasant sunny day of rest -- the wild wind blew thru
blue Heavens
filled with fluffy clouds stretched from Central City to Rocky
Flats, Plutonium sizzled in its secret bed,
hot dogs sizzled in the Lion's Club lunchwagon microwave
mouth, orangeade bubbled over in waxen cups
Traffic moved along Colefax, meditators silent in the Diamond
Castle shrine-room at Boulder followed the breath going
out of their nostrils,
Nobody could remember anything, spirits flew out of mouths
& noses, out of the sky, across Colorado plains & the
tent flapped happily open spacious & didn't fall down.
June , II -- Peace ProtestCumulus clouds float across blue sky
over the white-walled Rockwell Corporation factory
-- am I going to stop that? Rocky Mountains rising behind us
Denver shining in morning light
-- Led away from the crowd by police and photographers Middleaged Ginsberg and Ellsberg taken down the road
to the greyhaired Sheriff's van --
But what about Einstein? What about Einstein? Hey, Einstein
Come back!III -- Golden CourthouseWaiting for the Judge, breathing silent
Prisoners, witnesses, Police --
the stenographer yawns into her palms. August , IV -- Everybody's FantasyI walked outside & the bomb'd
dropped lots of plutonium
all over the Lower East Side
There weren't any buildings left just
iron skeletons
groceries burned, potholes open to
stinking sewer watersThere were people starving and crawling
across the desert
the Martian UFOs with blue
Light destroyer rays
passed over and dried up all the
watersCharred Amazon palmtrees for
hundreds of miles on both sides
of the river August , V -- Waiting Room at the Rocky Flats Plutonium Plant"Give us the weapons we need to protect ourselves!"
the bareheaded guard lifts his flyswatter above the desk
-- whap! *A green-letter'd shield on the pressboard wall!
"Life is fragile. Handle with care" --
My Goodness! here's where they make the nuclear bomb
triggers. August , VI -- Numbers in Red Notebook,, killed in Vietnam
,, refugees in Indochina
,, years for the Galaxy to revolve on its core
, the Babylonian Great Year
, half life of plutonium
, the most I ever got for a poetry reading
, dolphins killed in the dragnet
,,, years earth been born Summer
tauqua tent in Aurora
listening to Black spirituals, tapping their feet, appreciating
words singing by in mountain winds
on a pleasant sunny day of rest -- the wild wind blew thru
blue Heavens
filled with fluffy clouds stretched from Central City to Rocky
Flats, Plutonium sizzled in its secret bed,
hot dogs sizzled in the Lion's Club lunchwagon microwave
mouth, orangeade bubbled over in waxen cups
Traffic moved along Colefax, meditators silent in the Diamond
Castle shrine-room at Boulder followed the breath going
out of their nostrils,
Nobody could remember anything, spirits flew out of mouths
& noses, out of the sky, across Colorado plains & the
tent flapped happily open spacious & didn't fall down.
June , II -- Peace ProtestCumulus clouds float across blue sky
over the white-walled Rockwell Corporation factory
-- am I going to stop that? Rocky Mountains rising behind us
Denver shining in morning light
-- Led away from the crowd by police and photographers Middleaged Ginsberg and Ellsberg taken down the road
to the greyhaired Sheriff's van --
But what about Einstein? What about Einstein? Hey, Einstein
Come back!III -- Golden CourthouseWaiting for the Judge, breathing silent
Prisoners, witnesses, Police --
the stenographer yawns into her palms. August , IV -- Everybody's FantasyI walked outside & the bomb'd
dropped lots of plutonium
all over the Lower East Side
There weren't any buildings left just
iron skeletons
groceries burned, potholes open to
stinking sewer watersThere were people starving and crawling
across the desert
the Martian UFOs with blue
Light destroyer rays
passed over and dried up all the
watersCharred Amazon palmtrees for
hundreds of miles on both sides
of the river August , V -- Waiting Room at the Rocky Flats Plutonium Plant"Give us the weapons we need to protect ourselves!"
the bareheaded guard lifts his flyswatter above the desk
-- whap! *A green-letter'd shield on the pressboard wall!
"Life is fragile. Handle with care" --
My Goodness! here's where they make the nuclear bomb
triggers. August , VI -- Numbers in Red Notebook,, killed in Vietnam
,, refugees in Indochina
,, years for the Galaxy to revolve on its core
, the Babylonian Great Year
, half life of plutonium
, the most I ever got for a poetry reading
, dolphins killed in the dragnet
,,, years earth been born Summer
