Automatic World by Philip Lamantia

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.