THE GIFTS OF COLUMBUS
1
Syphilis. Gonorrhea.
Clymidia. Genital warts.
But we will not hold him
to answer for AIDS.
Fair's fair.
2
The garrot. The stake.
3
The garrot. The stake.
Sadly the Cross.
What an idea is Christianity,
so vaunting that it is
rarely tried.
4
The Haitian economy.
Slavery. Enslaved natives
digging in mines for gold
that was not there.
He should have known
Francisco Pizarro: at least Pizarro
knew who to kill.
5
He fathered Papa Doc Duvalier.
Recall a famous image,
Gene Smith's, of
Duvalier at his desk.
At his left hand his automatic pistol
and manually-operated prescription pad.
I can kill and I can cure.
Columbus fathered God.
6
Years ago I met a woman with
cultivated manners and a French accent
living in the Bronx on Welfare,
sweet and befuddled
while her children ran the streets
learning how to be drug addicts.
Her husband had been a Haitian journalist
and one night he disappeared.
7
Harpo burns a book.
Someone asks Chico
Why is he doing that?
Chico: "He can't read."
8
Recall images of
a Haitian madhouse,
of those fallen below
the sanity line.
To go insane is a valid way
to deal with poverty
if you don't own a gun.
It's even better if you do.
7
The official Haitian website misfires more often
than Duvalier's pistol and penis.
But we can read and learn that Haiti has
banana-flavored rum.
What a joy when you live
on forty dollars a year.
8
Poor Columbus: even Hilton,
Marriott, and Red Roof and Motel 6
will not build in Port Au Prince.
Super 8 will not go there either.
Why would anyone want to go to this place
except to look for fool's gold
and to buy slaves?
Uh...has anyone told you?...
8
Columbus failed totally except
we are here, we are his children.
Haiti is expanding: the New York
subways, the Jersey suburbs,
black or white,
cafe au lait, have coffee,
get laid, countermanning Starbucks,
occupying the same asylum.
KTW/rev. from 1999, 10-12-06
--
--------------------
Ken Wolman andreachenier.net rainermaria.typepad.com
DO NOT ADJUST YOUR MIND: IT IS REALITY THAT IS MALFUNCTIONING
|