I
Tonite I walked out of my red apartment door on East tenth street’s dusk-
Walked out of my home ten years, walked out in my honking neighborhood
Tonite at seven walked out past garbage cans chained to concrete anchors
Walked under black painted fire escapes, giant castiron plate covering a hole in ground
-Crossed the street, traffic lite red, thirteen bus roaring by liquor store,
past corner pharmacy iron grated, past Coca Cola & Mylai posters fading scraped on brick
Past Chinese Laundry wood door’d, & broken cement stoop steps For Rent hall painted green & purple Puerto Rican style
Along E. 10th’s glass splattered pavement, kid blacks & Spanish oiled hair adolescents’ crowded house fronts-
Ah, tonite I walked out on my block NY City under humid summer sky Halloween,
thinking what happened Timothy Leary joining brain police for a season?
thinking what’s all this Weathermen, secrecy & selfrighteousness beyond reason-F.B.I. plots?
Walked past a taxicab controlling the bottle strewn curb-
past young fellows with their umbrella handles & canes leaning against a ravaged Buick
-and as I looked at the crowd of kids on the stoop-a boy stepped up, put his arm around my neck
tenderly I thought for a moment, squeezed harder, his umbrella handle against my skull,
and his friends took my arm, a young brown companion tripped his foot ‘gainst my ankle-
as I went down shouting Om Ah Hūm to gangs of lovers on the stoop watching
slowly appreciating, why this is a raid, these strangers mean strange business
with what-my pockets, bald head, broken-healed-bone leg, my softshoes, my heart-
Have they knives? Om Ah Hūm-Have they sharp metal wood to shove in eye ear ass? Om Ah Hūm
& slowly reclined on the pavement, struggling to keep my woolen bag of poetry address calendar & Leary-lawyer notes hung from my shoulder
dragged in my neat orlon shirt over the crossbar of a broken metal door
dragged slowly onto the fire-soiled floor an abandoned store, laundry candy counter 1929-
now a mess of papers & pillows & plastic car seat covers cracked cockroach-corpsed ground-
my wallet back pocket passed over the iron foot step guard
and fell out, stole by God Muggers’ lost fingers, Strange-
Couldn’t tell-snakeskin wallet actually plastic, 70 dollars my bank money for a week,
old broken wallet-and dreary plastic contents-Amex card & Manf. Hanover Trust Credit too-business card from Mr. Spears British Home Minister Drug Squad-my draft card-membership ACLU & Naropa Institute Instructor’s identification
Om Ah Hūm I continued chanting Om Ah Hūm
Putting my palm on the neck of an 18 year old boy fingering my back pocket crying “Where’s the money”
“Om Ah Hūm there isn’t any”
My card Chief Boo-Hoo Neo American Church New Jersey & Lower East Side
Om Ah Hūm -what not forgotten crowded wallet-Mobil Credit, Shell? old lovers addresses on cardboard pieces, booksellers calling cards-
-“Shut up or we’ll murder you”-“Om Ah Hūm take it easy”
Lying on the floor shall I shout more loud?-the metal door closed on blackness
one boy felt my broken healed ankle, looking for hundred dollar bills behind my stocking weren’t even there-a third boy untied my Seiko Hong Kong watch rough from right wrist leaving a clasp-prick skin tiny bruise
“Shut up and we’ll get out of here”-and so they left,
as I rose from the cardboard mattress thinking Om Ah Hūm didn’t stop em enough,
the tone of voice too loud-my shoulder bag with 10,000 dollars full of poetry left on the broken floor-
A few random poems:
- Sonnet 01 poem – John Milton poems
- Jerusalem by Yehuda Amichai
- Music by Walter de la Mare
- Kindness by Sylvia Plath
- Song of the Broad-Axe. by Walt Whitman
- Since There Is No Escape by Sara Teasdale
- Владимир Вишневский – Стада уж боле не пасутся мирно
- Two Sonnets. To Haydon, With A Sonnet Written On Seeing The Elgin Marbles poem – John Keats poems
- The Cyclists poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Ольга Ермолаева – На каблуках-то и то к голове удалой
- The Voice poem – Andree Chedid poems | Poems and Poetry
- Robert Burns: Under The Pressure Of Violent Anguish:
- Robert Burns: Love In The Guise Of Friendship:
- A Bit O’ Fun by William Barnes
- Владимир Маяковский – Победой увенчав Октябрьский бой… (Главполитпросвет №364)
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- In Commendation Of Musick by William Strode
- Her Epitaph by William Strode
- For A Gentleman, Who, Kissinge His Friend At His Departure Left A Signe Of Blood On Her by William Strode
- Epitaph On Mr. Bridgeman by William Strode
- Consolatorium, Ad Parentes by William Strode
- Chloris in the Snow by William Strode
- Anthem For Good Fryday by William Strode
- An Epitaph On Sr John Walter, Lord Cheife Baron by William Strode
- An Epitaph On Mr. Fishborne The Great London Benefactor, And His Executor by William Strode
- An Eare-Stringe by William Strode
- An Antheme by William Strode
- A Watch-String by William Strode
- A Watch Sent Home To Mrs. Eliz: King, Wrapt In Theis Verses by William Strode
- A Translation Of The Nightingale Out Of Strada by William Strode
- A Superscription On Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia, Sent For A Token by William Strode
- A Strange Gentlewoman Passing By His Window by William Strode
- A Song On The Baths by William Strode
- A Song On A Sigh by William Strode
- A Riddle: On A Kiss by William Strode
- A Purse-String by William Strode
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
Search engines:
Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)
Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.
Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees
Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.
Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works
