William S. Burroughs 19 November 2020

 

                           (William Burroughs 1983)

Fearful of nightmares,

Hallucinating

Little men

Playing house,

     -Terror of nightmares,

      -Melancholic tones

     -Textured by

     -Fear, guilt, rage;

'Ghostly grey figures, 

Apparition of 

Green reindeer

In the woods,' 

     -Nude figures cut out,

     -Genitals cut off,

     -Scissors gripped

     -By stained hand;

Red phosphorus mixed

With potassium

Chlorate, black

Powder bombs,

     -Sudden outbursts sprayed

     -Explosive temper,

     -Violent

     -Forces stirred;

Pistol in shoulder

Holster, assembled,

Pin readied

Tommy Gun,

     -Gun metal rifles

     -Pulled off walls, pointed,

     -Brown bovines

     -Switch their tails;

'Let me show it to

You... real beauty...I

Love the feel

In my hand,'

     -Chain smoked cigarettes

     -Sucked down, stomped out, in

     -Back-room bars

     -Swilling beers;

'You Can't Win' spelled it

Out: if found unlike 

Others, best

Keep apart,

     -Underdog's quick wit

     -Joking undermined

     -Threatening

     -When cornered;

Boy, 'gibbon,' measured,

Weighed, Harvard lectured,

Eccentrics

Sacrosanct,

     -Draftsman aped student,

     -Won Cooper Union

     -Semester

     -Scholarship;

Thinking dissected,

Finger severed, son

Committed

To parents,

     -Entry-level job

     -Mindless, next job, wrist 

     -Transaction

     -Leveraged;

Flunked enlistment, ducked

Draft, copywriter,

Bug sprayer,

Writ server,

     -Piece de resistance

     -Boy wonder flunkey,

     -A saddle

     -Amigo;

Jack, junk, Huncke, Allen,

Joan, Neal, orgone box,

Billy, Kells,

In snapshots,

     -Arthur, David, A.,

     -Henry, Ellsworth, B.,

     -Barnett, Hans,

     -The cutout;

New York, Texas, New 

Orleans, Mexico, 

Tangier, 'Lunch,'

Tri fold-ins,

     -Europe, Africa,

     -Europe, Florida,

     -Five Village

     -Subway stops;

Primordially

Disembodied graft

Absorbed male,

Oozed female,

     -Cordially sublime

     -Beauty encompassed

     -Masculine

     -Fruition;

Possessed by evil

Spirit, the sentence:

Recording

Instrument,

     -Recessed conflicting

     -Emotions in paint

     -Strokes, drunk blind

     -Hailed their cabs;

Interzone routines

Unpredictable,

Un-sequenced

Travelogues,

     -Workspace frequented

     -By local poets

     -And artists,

     -Keen sitters;

Cartographer's script,

Detritus, mixed for

Indexing,

Editing,

     -Photographer's kit,

     -Art supplies, art books,

     -Painted, stacked

     -Canvasses;

(Stock characters), Gimp,

Vigilante, Rube,

Shake Man, Kid,

Doctor, Nurse,

     -Big city slicker 

     -Denizens, Village

     -Wannabes,

     -His subjects;

Moved to the Bunker,

Once YMCA 

Boys' locker, 

Mezzanine,

     -Drinkers' noise sector,

     -Basement studio, 

     -Shadow of

     -Ninth Circle;

Midwest twang read out

Practiced underground

Passages

To the rapt,

     -Lidless edginess

     -Trapped on surfaces

     -Bled into

     -Dramatic;

Narrative driven

By daily typing 

In drink, drugs,

Induced trance,

     -Self-medicated

     -Alcohol, depressed,

     -Curated

     -Ambitions;

Rodent bitten draft

Manuscript, pasted

Over bits

And pieces,

     -Candid pencil takes

     -Instinctively pierced

     -Unwitting

     -Disclosures;

Voices posturing,

Visions mirrored back,

Dimensions

Shattering,

     -Choices pestering,

     -Decisions battered,

     -Buttressed eye

     -Zeroed in;

Introspective, self 

Analyzed, odd man

Outsider

Appraised all,

     -Extrospective half

     -Canonised surplice

     -Conditioned

     -Doubt sayers;

Wages, allowance,

Bail, drug sales, crop sales,

Advances,

Royalties,

     -Scholarship, wages,

     -Companionship, trips,

     -Grantee, sales,

     -Commissions;

Mote, Laura, Billy;

Giorno, Ginsberg, 

James; Ian,

Mort, felines,

     -Alice, Arthur, Tim;

     -John, Julia Mayo;

     -Holly, Charles;

     -And Sidney;

'Cities of the Red

Night,' fiction refuge,

Cragged nova

Complexion,

     -Grit of the red eyed

     -Oracle's formal,

     -Unrehearsed,

     -Delivery.

19 November 2020