George the IIIrd, Rasputin, Stalin, Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, Hitler, the 13th Dalai Lama’s Regent, Vice President Agnew,
Ronald Reagan delayed hostage release till the Elephant party’s Inauguration Day
George Bush peddled coke for the contras in streetcorner banks downtown Panama City!
Scandals in Buddhafields? big mistakes in Hemispheres, on moons, Black Holes everywhere!
Anyway, the national debt’ll approach 4 trillion any day say the homeless on Tompkins Square.
July 12, 1990
Poem in the Form of a Snake That Bites Its Tail
Oleta (Snake) River!
Heron, Manatee, Osprey
Canopy of white red &
black Mangroves
fighting for survival against
exotics introduced
by Europeans
Swamp fern covers the ground
by this Primordial Tidal
Zone,
Brown detritus under the
clear water
feeds animals and trees in
high and low tides
pulled by the moon,
cycles of lunar
reproduction following
waters flowing
in and out the
Intracoastal Waterway—
Barracuda come
in with the tides
Heron we’ll see
Brazilian pepper
& Malalluca
from Australia
brought in by Mr. Gifford
first Doctor
of Tropical Agriculture
Malalluca
to dry out the swamps
& make truck farms
to feed the Northeast 1900—
Dade County
tomatoes & cabbage today—
Then real estate won
out, that saved the
swamp
water
supply
This forest by Oleta River a tiny
area untouched
half a million
years—
Interconnected to the
coral reefs
(as nutrient-rich protective
soup for fish
spawning)
with a rubber tire, mucus—
soaked in the ooze
Red mangrove
seedlings growing on inland skirts
at water edge
roots like spindly
buttresses
First Indians Tequesta
for 10–25,000 years—
left behind shell
tools
to make dugouts
Mikasuki and Seminole
were Creek Indians forced down
from North Carolina
by Sen. Jesse Helms
then driven inland from
Northern Florida
by the Army
—Indian middens
attest 100
years’ occupation
The Seminole
more warlike than
the innocent
Tequestas
Quiet in a canoe
Train whistle West
& airplane above
cottony clouds
in blue afternoon
Seminole and Mikasuki
accepted
runaway slaves
got in trouble with
the whites—
Abraham the Runaway showed Chief Osceola
guerrilla gunpowder—
Defied the U.S. Army—
Govt. fought 2 wars
against them—
first 1820 Andrew Jackson
fought in Florida
pushed Indians south
Second Seminole War
transported 2,000
Indians to Oklahoma
around 1840, the Trail of Tears
—200 managed to
escape into swamp
where white man had
yet no use for
the land
Indians
from before Columbus
& runaway slaves
Strange & perpetual
alliance
Otherwise we’re all exotics
like the Brazilian pepper
and Australian pine
A brown heron
flaps along the
green surface
to stand sentinel
beak pointed out
on a green lawn
past the big rubber
tree—
tall stalky legs
rising halfway
heavy slow
on long wings
the height of the big
ficus’ leafy
umbrella whose
thready prop roots hang
over the concrete
bank down to the brackish
water surface
Kids’ & crows’ voices
(crows here for the
season)
Water filled the
coral, ojus,
limestone
a product trucked
out since
the railroad came down,
turn of the century
Trains a mile long
from rockpits now
at the edge of
the Everglades
Mikasuki Indians now hold
cultural events
Steve & Billy Tiger
painter & musician
Seminoles more commercially
oriented, invented Bingo on
the reservation,
On land they control
untax’d cigarettes
A local issue
ecological!
We depend on Everglades
for water to
sustain our days—
Most of the body is
made up of water—
3–4 days without water
we die—
Everglades filters the
water Dade Broward
& Palm Beach County drink—
(Tricounty fresh water—)
But Brazilian pepper seeds
explode
and cause mumbo-jumbo
growth at
waterside.
Exotic Malalluca trees—?
The developers like it
(it’s cheap)
but they drink up water & their
flowers cause allergies
to Rochelle—
Red mangrove
stains the water
properly its own color
Are hyperindustrial White folks
exotics to the planet now?
Here comes a duck
that flies, sings & runs
but doesn’t do any
of them well
El pato vuela, canta
y corre, pero
ninguno de las tres
los hace bien.
Big yellow hibiscus faces
with red noses—
Venetian sailors
brought
venereal disease
to New World
now Millennial events
speed up?
Get off fossil fuels
for transport
Get off oil addiction
Plastics could be
recyclable
Zero Growth regenerative
recycling as for
thousands of years
with the Tequesta
Get off this disposable
binge—
& water! dont mess
up the Oleta River Dont
play with the big Snake
Can live without air
8 minutes
Can live without water
2–4 days
can live without food
40–50 days—
Survive, clean up our
air
Clean up water
Grow enuf food to
keep everybody
alive
Instructors: any
indigenous populations
Indians, Africans,
Tibetans, Bedouins
Laplanders—
Chernobyl began
the question—
How much can the
Government lie?
(Miami Herald pervasive
and controlling—)
Locally the Seminoles may
be the Gurus.
With Steven Bornstein
November 16, 1990
Mistaken Introductions
or this marvelous hi Lama followed
in here by screaming madwoman
charging she was betrayed 10 years ago
on one of the moons of Saturn
or, I want to introduce you to this
universe which unfortunately
doesn’t quite exist.
We set up luncheon at Rizzoli
for the Tibetan photog who
hadnt prepared his
slides, it was a disaster—
May I introduce you to your
prospective son-in-law—
unfortunately today he’s drunk
unshaven but a good
businessman tomorrow
It’s a magnificent hotel
just this week there’s no
water to flush the toilet
above the 10th floor
where you’re staying and
we had a fire in the elevator
January 7, 1991
C.I.A. DOPE CALYPSO
CIA Dope Calypso
In nineteen hundred forty-nine
China was won by Mao Tse-tung
Chiang Kai-shek’s army ran away
They were waiting there in Thailand yesterday
Supported by the CIA
Pushing junk down Thailand way
First they stole from the Meo tribes
Up in the hills they started taking bribes
Then they sent their soldiers up to Shan
Collecting opium to sell to The Man
Pushing junk in Bangkok yesterday
Supported by the CIA
Brought their jam on mule trains down
To Chiang Rai that’s a railroad town
Sold it next to police chief brain
He took it to town on the choochoo train
Trafficking dope to Bangkok all day
Supported by the CIA
The policeman’s name was Mr. Phao
He peddled dope grand scale and how
Chief of border customs paid
By Central Intelligence’s U.S. A.I.D.
The whole operation, Newspapers say
Supported by the CIA
He got so sloppy & peddled so loose
He busted himself & cooked his own goose
Took the reward for an opium load
Seizing his own haul which same he resold
Big-time pusher a decade turned grey
Working for the CIA
Touby Lyfong he worked for the French
A big fat man liked to dine & wench
Prince of the Meos he grew black mud
Till opium flowed through the land like a flood
Communists came and chased the French away
So Touby took a job with the CIA
The whole operation fell into chaos
Till U.S. Intelligence came into Laos
I’ll tell you no lie I’m a true American
Our big pusher there was Phoumi Nosovan
All them princes in a power play
But Phoumi was the man for the CIA
And his best friend General Vang Pao
Ran our Meo army like a sacred cow
Helicopter smugglers filled Long Cheng’s bars
In Xieng Quang province on the Plain of Jars
It started in secret they were fighting yesterday
Clandestine secret army of the CIA
All through the Sixties the Dope flew free
Thru Tan Son Nhut Saigon to Marshal Ky
Air America followed through
Transporting confiture for President Thieu
All these Dealers were decades and yesterday
The Indochinese mob of the U.S. CIA
Operation Haylift offisir Wm. Colby
Saw Marshal Ky fly opium Mr. Mustard told me
Indochina desk he was Chief of Dirty Tricks
“Hitchhiking” with dope pushers was how he got his fix
Subsidizing traffickers to drive the Reds away
Till Colby was the head of the CIA
January 1972
II
N.S.A. Dope Calypso
Now Richard Secord and Oliver North
Hated Sandinistas whatever they were worth
They peddled for the Contras to ease their pain
They couldn’t sell Congress so Contras sold cocaine
They discovered Noriega only yesterday
Nancy Reagan & the CIA
Now coke and grass were exchanged for guns
On a border airfield that John Hull runs
Or used to run till his Costa Rican bust
As a CIA spy trading Contra coke dust
They discovered Noriega only yesterday
Nancy Reagan & the CIA
Ramón Milian Rodríguez of Medellín Cartel
Laundered their dollars & he did it very well
Hundreds of millions through U.S. banks
Till he got busted and sang in the tank
It was buried in the papers only yesterday
When Bush was Drug Czar U.S.A.
Milian told Congress $3,000,000 coke bucks
Went to Felix Rodríguez, CIA muck-a-muck
To give to the Contras only Hush Hush Hush
Except for Donald Gregg & his boss George Bush
Buried in the papers only yesterday
With Bush Vice President U.S.A.
Rodríguez met Bush in his office many times
They didn’t talk business, they drank lemon & limes
Or maybe they drank coffee or they smoked a cigarette
But cocaine traffic they remembered to forget
It was buried in the papers only yesterday
And Bush got in the White House of the U.S.A.
Now when Bush was director of the C.I.A.
Panama traffic in coke was gay
You never used to hear George Bush holler
When Noriega laundered lots of cocaine dollar
Bush paid Noriega, used to work together
They sat on a couch & talked about the weather
Then Noriega doublecrossed his Company pal
With a treaty taking back our Panama Canal
So when he got into the big White House
Bush said Noriega was a cocaine louse
The Cold War ended, East Europe found hope
The U.S. got hooked in a war on dope
Glasnost came, East Europe got free
So Bush sent his army to Panama City
Bush’s guns in Panama did their worst
Like coke fiends fighting on St. Marks & First
Does Noriega know Bush’s Company crimes?
In 2000 A.D. read the New York Times.
January-February 1990
III
Just Say Yes Calypso
When Schwarzkopf’s Father busted Iran’s Mossadegh
They put in the Shah and his police the Savak
They sucked up his oil, but got Ayatollah’s dreck
So Thirty years later we hadda arm Iraq
Though he used poison gas, Saddam was still our man
But to aid the Contras, hadda also arm Iran
Mesopotamia was doing just fine
Till the Ottoman Empire blew up on a mine
They had apple orchards in Eden and Ur
Till the Snake advised George Bush “This land is yours”
The Garden foul’d up, brimstone came down
In the good old days we had plenty
ozone
The British & Americans & Frenchmen all
Took concessions in the Garden So the Garden took a fall
Got addicted to Emirs and their fossil fuels
Police state Sheiks & Intelligence ghouls
The Sphinx lost his nose, acid ate the Parthenon
Pretty soon the Persian Gulf is dead and gone
The Saudi desert bloomed with oil pipe lines
To push the auto industry It’s yours & it’s mine
L.A. and Osaka got a habit on gas
In a bullet-proof Caddie you can really move your ass
L.A. & Osaka got a habit on gas
In a bullet-proof Caddie you can really move your ass
From a Mickey-Mouse war on cocaine & crack
We dropped a million bombs on the kids in Iraq
How many we killed nobody wants to tell
It’d give a lousy picture of a war they gotta sell
When they wave a yellow ribbon & an oily flag
Just say yes or they’ll call you a flag
April 25, 1991
Hum Bom!
I
Whom bomb?
We bomb’d them!
Whom bomb?
We bomb’d them!
Whom bomb?
We bomb’d them!
Whom bomb?
We bomb’d them!
Whom bomb?
We bomb you!
Whom bomb?
We bomb you!
Whom bomb?
You bomb you!
Whom bomb?
You bomb you!
What do we do?
Who do we bomb?
What do we do?
Who do we bomb?
What do we do?
Who do we bomb?
What do we do!
Who do we bomb?
What do we do?
You bomb! You bomb them!
What do we do?
You bomb! You bomb them!
What do we do?
We bomb! We bomb you!
What do we do?
You bomb! You bomb you!
Whom bomb?
We bomb you!
Whom bomb?
We bomb you!
Whom bomb?
You bomb you!
Whom bomb?
You bomb you!
May 1971
II
For Don Cherry
Whydja bomb?
We didn’t wanna bomb!
Whydja bomb?
We didn’t wanna bomb!
Whydja bomb?
You didn’t wanna bomb!
Whydja bomb?