MEXICO, and USA 

America Revisited

America I came here looking for myself and now we're both lost.
America the second nuclear alert in seven months June 3, 1980.
What fireworks, Ginsberg!
America you shouldn't have frightened me into social insecurity.
I thought I'd never finish this poem I swear.
It's all your fault I'm not the one who started it.
I was 25 years old then now I feel like forty.
I haven't respected myself since our disagreement over Vietnam
          I hope you're satisfied.
America when will you calm down?
When will you act your age?
When will you normalize relations with inner space?
When will you please come home from the moon?
I do believe you've taken this thing a bit too far.
You made me want to relive my adolescence forever.
America when will you establish a meaningful dialogue with the
           young?
When will you teach sex education to your ministers of war and
          injustice?
When will you finally yield the right of way to future
          generations?
I don't wanna grow old and sad and sit on a parkbench and cry.
I'm obsessed with my youth enough as it is.
I look at it every morning in the mirror.
I don't mind telling you I'm beginning to like what I see.
America when will your elected officials take the role of
          Robin Hood seriously?
I know you're an anarchist at heart.
Why don't you just admit it nobody's listening anyway.
When will you clean up your act?
You've made a fine mess of things.
Steven's in the nuthouse they might not let him out I think
          it's serious.
When will you provide for his peace of mind and promote his
          sexual tranquility?
Everyone I talk to is already burning their closet doors and
          football jerseys I see it all now Gay businessmen in
          grey flannel suits with pansies in their lapels
          running the Bay Area Rapid Transit not to mention
          the Staten Island Ferry O Walt Whitman what visions
          I have of orgasmic happenings in public places
          Heavy breathing on the radio at boyscout jamborees
          in tearooms hockshops highschool lockerrooms
          drugstores where aphrodisiacs are dispensed free
          of charge by the government if there is one even in
          New Mexico's crowded american legion halls When I
          came home from Syracuse by rail I was cruised up and
          down every aisle I kid you not and I'm not even good
          looking I here declare the beginning of my final
          sexual revolution Mother Daughter and Ginsberg-
          Spirit when I grow up I want to be more famous than
          Anita Bryant.

America I have the key to all your daughters' chastity belts.
You cannot deny me I mean business.
I know this is your way.
America Kent State did this to me I don't have any regrets.
America exonerate the Berrigan brothers.
America free Benjamin Sasway this very minute.
America save your children of the Love Canal.
America Harvey Milk must not die.
All the history books are talking about how you did them in.
I won't tell the FBI a thing.
I don't trust myself on my own recognizance.
Even my lawyer advised me against starring in this poem.
America I deserve an Academy Award nomination for this
        performance alone I know it's gotta happen sooner or later.
I can still remember my bill of rights after highschool civics.
Gimme one good reason why not.
OK what have you to say for yourself now?
I hear America singing on MTV.
America shut up don't talk to me like that I can't even hear
          my own self think.
If you don't like the tone of my poem you can leave I really
                       wouldn't mind.

And another thing America it's that cuban that cuban and the
           madman Q'addafi. And that cuban.
The castro's in Angola The castro's in Ethiopia The castro's in
          Grenada Mozambique Nicaragua and the People Magazine
          The castro won't leave me alone The castro's in
          every letter of the international alphabet soup Oh
          my gosh How he be in so many places at once?
Now the cuba want guantanamo bay Give her that she take
          everything tampa to hudson bay just you wait and see
The castro no care about world order Him no play straight pool
          Him try wreck two-party system Him with terrible
          third world force Where him learn that nasty stuff
          Where him go to school Princeton?
That cuban real godless satanic power.

No need to tell me I already know the Marines are coming again
                          I can read.
Does the tide come in every day?
Do the waves wash the sands from one beachhead to the next?
Do more people watch the superbowl than vote in the
          Presidential election?
Is the gross national product of General Dynamics more than the
          GNPs of Luxembourg and Iceland combined?
America let's set the record straight once and for all.
I destroyed my draft card years ago.
I can't afford a one-way passport and refuse to sign any more
          loyalty oaths.
I get seasick just thinking about all those naval bases in the
          Indian Ocean it's ridiculous.
America are you being ridiculous or is this your idea of
          having a fucking good time?
It's also high time I told you off for all the friends you've
          hooked on alcohol and cocaine.
America quit interrupting me I'm not finished yet.
When will you have a change of heart?
When will you accept the verdict of eternity?
When will you issue an immediate restraining order on the
                      arms race?
I would've gladly paid my taxes except for all those bombs.
I've run out of primal screams and enough fingers and toes and
          spy satellites to keep track of all this.
Everyday somebody wants to build a new missile system.
America stop the criminal MX subway I want off.
How many times do I have to say this?
Silos are for grain.
America feed your forty million poor.

America I am working overtime on an equitable division of labor.
I demand a sexual opinion.
My queer bill of health has been certified by the American
          Psychiatric Association.
I'm trying to conduct myself accordingly.
I have acquired the proper attitude.
I will not lower my voice.
I won't get out of the way.
I have very little to say to the heterosexist press.
I still make love against the national interest.
I am looking for more gainful employment tomorrow.
I consider myself qualified for the next equal opportunity.
I'm retooling to the best of my capacity.
I am reconstructing the free world in my own image.
I'm delegating my authority with all deliberate speed.
I sure am taking my time.
I wasn't born this clumsy you know.
I never was any good at russian roulette.
I think I can handle the Mideast situation.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I've got my telephone lines tapped as well.
I'm turning up the volume.
I'd like to see that instant replay of the 1960s again.
I certainly wouldn't mind a more aerobic social life.
I'm making do with as much of the world's resources as I can
                  manage to utilize.
I once felt called to a higher purpose.
I continue to intervene overseas against my best intentions.
I must be getting nostalgic.
I can't help myself it's not easy being a superpower.
I haven't missed a trick one night this week.
I'm hustling my ass in arms sales to the Third World.
I ain't pussyfooting around in the Caribbean no more.
I knew it would come down to admitting this someday.
I always wanted the courage to give up Puerto Rico.
I hope you can accept my confiding this in you.
I've never been happy keeping anything top secret.
I now see myself in a new light.
I am broadening my horizons to include the Persian Gulf oil
          fields.
I'm embarked upon a fiscal policy of restraint.
I bailed out Chrysler Corporation as fast as you wouldn't
          believe it.
I am full speed ahead with toxic waste cleanup.
I'd bet my national health insurance policy on it.
America I'll raise you 20 cents the price of first class postage.
I don't seem to have much choice in the matter.
I'd prefer the most direct route available.
I've given my two weeks notice.
I'm vacating the premises immediately.
I won't be back by popular demand so don't wait up.
I've had enough of this New Deal up to here.
I'm kicking out of the regulatory stops.
I'm revving up my diesel engines.
I'm at 130 in 6 seconds flat.
I'm cutting through the red tape and the federal wilderness
                     areas.
I ain't slowing down for no congressional investigation.
I'm making a detour to the far left.
America I refuse to relinquish my mineral rights without a
          good fight.
I'm rolling up my sleeves be careful.
I've been on my good behavior since I got kicked out of Saigon.
I know I let that motherfucker warcriminal Kissinger off too easy
                  I'll get him yet.
I'm moving right along.
I don't have much time left in the half-life of this poem so
          listen up.
I never said I wanted to be part of this monstrous
          bureaucratic thing.
I should've known better than to trust the New York Times.
I can't help free enterprise with all these environmental nuts
          running around.
I'm calling in the National Association of Manufacturers.
I never heard better advice in my life.
I'm putting the whole damn countryside and continental shelf
          up for sale lock, stock and porkbarrel.
I have no other means of child support honest.
I'm cashing in my food stamps that's it.
I wouldn't dream of touching the military budget.
I've never taken personal insults lightly.
I'm warning you Russia hands off Poland.
I won't take anymore excuses about spheres of influence.
I'm preparing my pershing missiles for Western Europe right
          now don't ask me why.
I'm afraid I haven't heard the last of this one yet.
I'm sick and tired of having to explain myself to the peaceniks.
I'll have you believing me before the next commercial
          announcement.
I'm running off at the mouth again.
I can't take the heat in El Salvador.
I made more sense before rigging the last free election.
I become so confused when the details get too technical.
I haven't been drinking.
I won't be intimidated by the rebels.
I'm making my last stand south of the Rio Grande.
I'm gonna cut 'em off at the isthmus of Panama.
I'll teach the poor Nicaraguans a history lesson or two mark my words.
I sensed the mandate of my electoral landslide all right.
I could be mistaken though it wouldn't be the first time.
I also have to credit a $500 billion international debt compounded
          daily.
America I have been asked to deliver this coup de grace free of charge.
I will next attempt to balance my checking account with a
          constitutional amendment.
I realize this isn't exactly what the founding fathers had
          in mind.

O Mother forgive me I cannot tell a lie.
I lie awake at night playing with myself.
I fall asleep dreaming Peoria is in flames.
America who said the holocaust ended in 1945?
Manifest Destiny gobbles two million Cambodians without a belch.
This death-wish is too much for both of us.
I wash my hands of the entire thing.
America this is my last confessional poem.
My closet collects laundry nothing more.
It looks like I'm gonna start preaching again.
I won't go back to the Church.
When will one of your Presidents go to Nagasaki and Hiroshima
          to lay a wreath and beg forgiveness?
America down on your knees.
America we can't go on seeing each other this way.
Sam, all my friends are becoming suspicious.
Sam, tell 'em it ain't true.
I can't take you anywhere it's embarrassing.
I'm tired of making excuses for your silly behavior, staying out
          all night and never bringing the boys home.
America stop teasing I wanna finish my poem right away.
Be a grand old man and go to sleep real soon.
Sweet dreams America with a wave of my fairy wand.

                             Newark, DE -Provincetown, MA
                             May 1980 - August 1983

The Day After

             for Joseph Lee Rykiel, who believed the end
             was near, and so it came closer, drinking himself
             into wild turkey oblivion, until he saw the light
             and it was the hydrogen bomb

To what shall I compare the earth the day after nuclear exchange?
Shall I begin by counting the warheads as grains of sand, soon
          enough to fill all the beaches of cape cod?
Shall I begin by numbering the days to Armageddon and start
          counting backwards until I fall asleep?
Shall I begin by saying that bomb now wears the disguise of
          terrorist mailman, has all our addresses in his plutonium
          backpocket?
Shall I say that unlike human being bomb has never wanted to be
          alone, has gathered unto himself all the resources of
          Europe America and the Soviet Union?
Shall I say bomb has no need of human fixtures the waterfaucet
          the incandescent bulb the doorlatch, that he comes and
          goes as he pleases among the heads of state?
Shall I say that it was bomb thought up the appropriations poured
          the cement wired the electric circuits, that it is bomb
          repairs the B-52 runways of nuclear oblivion?
Shall I say that bomb has been done without sexual relations, is
          fruitful and multiplies upon the face of the earth and
          is rising even now into the glory of the sky?
Shall I say then that bomb is god greater than Zeus Caesar Allah
          and Jehovah rolled into one, exacts his tribute into
          the hundreds of billions of dollars?
Shall I say bomb sits content in judgment at electromagnetic
          vanishing point of history, with a wink of his cosmic
          eye wishes us all good luck?
Shall I say bomb is eleventh and final plague upon the house of
          humankind?  Woe!  Woe unto them who would step into
          his way!
One trident submarine has more explosive power than all armies
          in warfare history.
What plebiscite commissioned monstrosity?
What ivy league graduate signed his name to requisition form
          of megadeath?
Who broke champagne bottle against hull of apocalypse sea
          serpent?
What annapolis crackpot pandered congressional seal of approval?
What will good housekeeping have to say about the mess?
What crime great enough in the making to stir conscience of
          nation?
Who woke up in the middle of the night with this bright idea
          I want to know!
Shall I go on and say there is intelligent life in the universe
          that knows nothing of these plans and lives in peace
          O where are you now?
Shall I issue my appeal for help in some as yet unknown
          galactic tongue?
Shall I say they might be able to teach an old and dying species
          a new trick or two?
What odds, Jimmy the Greek?
Which roulette table, Las Vegas?
How to get from here to there?
Will secret service transport presidential entourage the day
          after by rickshaw?
Will soviet politburo have to walk to work?
How many tibetans on their way to marketplace when the big one
          rock 'n rolls the himalayas?
Will washington burn down the house to roast its russian bear?
How many flights down fire escape of empire state?
How far into the earth to protect the federal reserve board?
What ventilation system necessary for survival of human race?
O now I can foretell the silence of transatlantic cable.
O now I can foretell the yearning of silverware.
O now I can foretell the desperation of baby stroller.
O now I can hear the lament of whale song rolling over and over
          in its oceanic grave.
O now I can hear the death knell of church bell over the
          remaining outposts of the human race.
O now I can measure the hope the day after in a teaspoon.
President of USA is compulsive gambler with humanity.
President of USA is thermonuclear junkie.
US economy needs plutonium fix to get itself going in the
          morning and out the door.
Secretary of Defense has needle marks from shooting Cesium 137.
White House staff gets its kicks snorting enriched uranium.
Congress speeding its brain on fissionable material.
Fortune 500 military-industrial complex has hopeless bellyache
          from guzzling radioactive waste soon will be shitting
         phosphorescent bricks!
Shall I now appeal to prurient interests and say that arms race
          obscene, worthy of expulsion from granite halls of
          senile and stammering Congress?
Shall I say forthright the National Security Council is drunk
          with power and demand a sobriety test and mandatory
         jail sentence?
Shall I introduce my disarmament idea to the intelligence
          agencies as the next great emancipator?
What amber waves of grain?
What purple mountain majesty?
What heavenly tenderness take hold in the American heartland
          to stem the tide of such madness?
O tell me how many generations henceforth can dance on the
          nosecone of a ballistic missile?
O tell me could the great houdini get out of the straightjacket
          of deterrence alive?
Does Europe like Garbo just want to be left alone?
What riddle will sphinx think up the next time around?
How many nuclear wolf alerts before unbelievable happens?
What alice in wonderland dare come back through the looking
          glass into this world the day after nuclear exchange?
Where will the spirit of christmas past go?
How far over the rainbow to escape the fallout?
          O scarecrow of the impossible ground zero!
          O tin man with your heart in your throat!
          O cowardly lion!  Who will be king now?
          O Dorothy!  How return home to irradiated Kansas?
          O wizard!  What wicked magician let this one out of the
                   trap door in Pandora's box?
I say now that it will take a million gandhis to bring peace
          to planet.
I say now it will take a million einstein brains to outwit
          diabolical brain of missile launch system.
I say now it will take a  four score and seven generations
          to undo damage already done by bomb.
Hopelessness of the young thy name is bomb.
All the young born under the sign of bomb.
How to cope with premonition of the end of the world?
          So long until tomorrow, Lowell Thomas!
          One giant leap for mankind, Neil Armstrong!
          A penny saved is a penny earned, Ben Franklin!
          Some pigs are more equal than others, George Orwell!
          Strawberry fields forever, Lennon and McCarthy!
          I shall return, Douglas MacArthur!
          All the news that's fit to print!
          Remember the Alamo!
          Peace is at hand!
          Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!
          Anchors aweigh, my boys, anchors aweigh!
          Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!

Publication Credit:  Peace Now, UK

© All Copyright, 2000, Michael Mayo.
All Rights Reserved. Printed By Permission.