AUTOMATIC WORLD
The sun has drowned
virgins are no more
there is no need for
understanding
but there is so much to see
So come with me
down the boulevard
of crawling veins
Don’t be afraid
blood is cheap!
A paradise song?
A dirty song?
A love sonnet?
Scream it out!
Then we’ll have the human
walls
tumbling down to meet our
march
into the raw-meat city!
The velvet robes are strewn
across the landscape
We step upon the sidewalk
that goes up and down
up to the clouds
down to the starving people
Don’t ask me what to do!
Keep on going
we’ll end up somewhere fast
on the moon perhaps!
Rainbow guns are dancing
in front of the movie queens
Everyone is laughing
flying dying
never knowing when to rest
never knowing when to eat
And the fountains come falling
out of her thistle-covered
breasts
and the dogs are happy
and the clowns are knifing
and the ballerinas are
eating stone
O the mirror-like dirt
of freshly spilt blood
trickling down the walls
the walls that reach the
stars!
O the flock of sheep
breaking their flesh open
with bones sucked
from the brothels!
O the grave of bats
sailing through shops
with the violent hands!
When will these come?
When will these go?
The sun is riding into your
eye
virgins are bursting
from under my flaming palms
and we are slowly floating
away
Richard Kostelanetz, Possibilities of Poetry: An Anthology of
American Contemporaries (New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1970), 246-7.