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Undependence Day it rained on their parade the red white & blue marched tainted green with greed i read Drum Taps & Specimen Days by Whitman dipping into the well of tenderness the reality of war captured & his love for Lincoln the crying sky continues the butterfly from Walt's finger now lives in a cave deep in Antler's beard i read Ginsberg's poem The Bricklayer's Lunch Hour & think of my bricklayer father buried in New Mexico with his Purple Heart & medals for bravery in combat while in Havana in 1953 Allen wrote Viva Jalisco! where i found love in Mexico later in Paris he wrote Death To Van Gogh's Ear i'd never read either 37 years later Vincent's age at suicide i call my first chapbook Van Gogh's Ear because he died on my birthday all these coincidences twist into a semblance of futility the Zapatistas continue to gnaw on tortillas & seek independence while Chiapas learns the true meaning of NAFTA the death rain falls from above & i burn my honorable discharge signed by Richard M. Nixon & watch the flame until it soothes my anger for a brief moment |
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