Friday, March 4, 2016

Alan Catlin- Three Poems


Por Cambio Otra Mas Nada

He went
South

in search
of Acapulco
Oro

vast quantities
already baled
by mestizos

wetbacks
working for
mescalito

tequila azul

He was
going
to sell
the weed

El Norte

for mucho
dinero

was whistling
the theme
to the Third
Man

as if he
had found
the lost
treasure of
Sierra Madre

that dark
moon less

night

he
was to meet
some

hombres

to drink
some agua
caliente

on calle de
la muerte

firewater
on the street
of death

that already
had his name
inscribed
upon it



Kill for Peace

He joined
the GyReens
in '67

to see the world
and kill gooks

mostly to
kill gooks

so they sent
him to
Hawaii

on a slow
boat
and
to kill
time

he knocked up
a lady marine
sergeant

beat the living
piss out of
her

when she told
him and
instead of
a court marshall

he got a
blanket party

was beaten
so bad
they knocked
40 points

off his IQ

then they
sent him
to Nam

to kill gooks

but it just
wasn't the same

They lived in
mortal fear

of finding all
the thoughts

of the best
minds
of their
generation

written down
on scraps
of paper

stuffed in
the mouths
of crocodiles

locked inside
plastic cosmic
cubes
or
contained within
melting colored
goo inside of lava
lamps

changing shapes
faster than
their minds

could hope
to under
stand


Tales of Beatnik Glory

seven flights
toward heaven
in a rent

controlled flop
house

where any
thing could
happen

& often did


2 comments:

  1. Very good work. Especially liked Kill for Peace, and
    Tales of Beatnik Glory. Kill for Peace had chaos,
    violence, anger, and fear exploding on the signed
    document.

    ReplyDelete