Ten Years Pass (poem)
Ten Years Pass
(written in 2000, San Francisco)
For a decade I search the nation
Letting my youthful heart guide me
Coast to coat I roam
Lonely
Following my terrible angel
Ten Years Pass
Odysseus is lost at sea
Burroughs is in Tangiers
And I am away from the Forest
A decade I follow the terrible angel,
Through the House of a Million Mirrors
Near the Isle of Infinite Lies
Under the Body of Diseased Lust
Above the Darkness
Below the LIght
Everywhere, always obscuring the Hopeful Object from Sight
Ten Years Pass
Odysseus is lost at sea
Burroughs is in Tangiers
And I am away from the Forest
Terrible Angel,
Casting my eyes upon every city
Through every neighborhood
Into each day
We work hard for coin
With hearts full of fears
Fears of job-loss
Of love-loss
Of reputation-loss
Of hair-loss
Of looks-loss
Of life lost
Of the losses real and imagined,
Relevant and Irrelevant
Ten Years Pass
Odysseus is lost at sea
Burroughs is in Tangiers
And I am away from the Forest
Floating through darkened streets
I hear faint whispers:
Stories heard and told
by portion and by piece
Reminiscing
Of days of old
When men begat men
When women birthed women
When youth emboldened old age
When humanity loved its Nature
Eh, let the by-gones be by-gones
EMBRACE THE BLOODY REGANOMIC DOLLAR!
Ten Years Pass
Odysseus is lost at sea
Burroughs is in Tangiers
And I am away from the Forest
The terrible angel shrieks war cries among the people:
Jail the drugged-out junkies!
Bomb the oil-hogging rag-heads!
Censor violent and sexual sincerity!
Poison the disease-ridden libertines!
Ten Years Pass
Odysseus is lost at sea
Burroughs is in Tangiers
And I am away from the Forest
Age and Time grind on
Cheeks once downy, now sticky with hair
Maturing, fading, evolving, dying.
Time heals, time teaches, time will kill us all!
The golden age eludes my youth,
The terrible angel all the more terrible
The New World Order is in my mind
I must speak to the King!
Ten Years Pass
Odysseus is lost at sea
Burroughs is in Tangiers
And I am away from Home