On the Assassination of John F. Kennedy

"The President's been shot," he said seriously.

We heard about it; it was what we talked about.

Brains and blood and bones in an upward curve

And his body across the woman: that's what we imagined

Though we'd be proven wrong by slow motion film

Showing his body just as if we were there with him.

But we didn't stop looking; we haven't stopped yet.

The Velvet Underground

Glass windows that hid them.

Her boots white. His black vinyl.

Leather across their backs.

A Slow Twist

he's being carried past us.
it is, as a thing, a new way of looking,
a slow twist,
a kind of indignation.
we still feel it, though,
but not as much as before,
this emptiness in the middle.



[For Michael Jackson,  Born, August 29, 1958; died: June 25, 2009.]

Dr. Benway Consults

he told his patient that
he had often cured such a mania
but that just in case
he should find
a transistor radio

[for William S. Burroughs]

[originally posted 4/23/09]



Born: February 5, 1914, St. Louis, Missouri
Died: August 2, 1997, Lawrence, Kansas