thoughts

poverty wears on whites. have you noticed? if you pass a housing project, the latino and black ladies will be shapely and alive. for sure, they are hurting too, but it doesn't hurt us as much to look at them. the white women though, will be withered and worn. what is it? perhaps too many told them in their youth that to be human, you must first make money. and when they didn't, it killed their spark. or maybe it's just that their bodies weren't built for a burger king diet.

i am finding that you don't read bukowski, you feast on him. you grow fat on his literary offerings, but you hunger still, until his next book arrives at the branch library. you read his books the way you listen to a lovely melody. it is not so much a book as an experience. in college, his name was never uttered, except for a pompous student who asked a teacher if he had heard of him. but as i've always said, school takes time away from education. and brother, am i learning now.

saw silberg this afternoon. he read me a poem entitled "america"

america

by

alan silberg

america, you have murdered your masters
you have turned art into entertainment
and entertainment into trash
america, you hung jackie wilson
out a window
and set sam cooke up
with a prostitute
you left wardell gray
ravaged in a river
and sent eric dolphy
to europe
his reason?
respect
something you have never given
your murdered masters
america, you have terrorized your talent
you mutilated malcolm
after he left the black muslims
and before
he could move the masses
america, you drove lenny mad
and sent abbie down a road
to nowhere
america you have fucked and finished your finest
you buried fred hampton in a bed of bullets
and have bombed boys
and girls
and men
and women
america, you have crushed countries
with your burning bombs
and your nasty napalm
america, you robbed us of robeson
and you wronged
richard wright
fuck you america
with your atom bomb
and your thousands of others bombs
you bully
you beast
america, you have murdered your masters
and made slaves
of us all.