Ditto. But that's usual for Ken.
kasper salonen <[log in to unmask]> wrote: brilliant, brilliant. I don't use that adjective often, & almost never
use it twice.
having read a LOT of poetry about Amerika & its core(s), I expected
something less original & less stylishly perpetrated. fucking
excellent :)
KS
On 12/10/06, Kenneth Wolman wrote:
> 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
>
---------------------------------
Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2¢/min or less.
|