Alan Catlin- Three Poems

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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