Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume. 34, Number 8. 1971

collision

collision

boss aint it awful the way
they make you look at things
as if you were inside of a toilet —
their toilet!
these sadistic nurses — they speak
to me as if i was a finger —
i lay in this bed unprotected &
the fellow next door — he must
be a Zulu — the doctors cant
stand him
& he gets no visitors — the
Sister says he's irreligious but
i just think he gags alot

boss three bodies got shipped out
this morning— Lady Esther said that
they went to the hunting ground —
Cronie said that they never were
worth much anyway & St Crockasheet
said abraca dabra — Lady Esther is
the cleaning lady & she was
mopping up the beds when i woke
up. . .there was some candle wax
on the window — Cronie said not
to touch it

there is a sign in the hall that reads "Quiet" —
it waits for no one —i think that is
what makes people different than
signs

i say to him "they'll get you"
& he say "no" & i say "& if they
dont get you, you'll get yourself"
& he say "you got bad manners &
i go to church & nobody's gonna
get me" & then some guys wearing
parachutes come in & give him
a wiff of mint & hand him a
peacock feather & then they slit

his throat. . .i looked out the
window & saw this car stop — it
had a bumper sticker saying
"Vote, Goat" & a man got out &
wiped his feet on a doormat —
he carried a book of Aesop's Fables
& then Lady Esther came In again
& cleaned up the mess — i turned
on the radio but all that was
happening was the news

boss aint it fierce the way that one
woman with the Persian monkey treated
the other woman with the Alley monkey?
Claudette came to see me last nite —
she doesnt own a monkey & she couldnt
get in — then at the same time, the nurse
came in & said "it's raining cats &
dogs outside — is it too much for you
to bear ha ha?" i couldve swallowed her
tonite i dance with Strawberry, the
bloody clothes wife — i say her head,
if necessary, would crack like an egg
& she damns me— if i thank her
then she calls me a whore so there's
no way out. . .my mind is with the kitchen
workers but when they catch spiders &
pull their legs off & laugh — it usually
wakes me up. . .i am sick of people
praising Einstein — bourgeois ghosts —
i am sick of heroic sorrow

as soon as i get out of here
i'm going to my blood bank
& make a withdrawal & go
to Greece — Greece is beautiful
& nobody understands you
there

the janitor with a glass eye —
he's all right — at least he
minds his own business — he
tells me that Shakespeare's relatives
killed his ancestors — & that now
his brothers wont read Shakespeare. . .
he says that he used to ride to
church on an ox & when they sold
the church, he sold the ox. . .
that janitor, he's ok. . .Lady
Esther says that he aint never
gonna amount to much but i
never speak to Lady Esther &
what does she know about people
with glass eyes anyway?

my bosom feels like the
grave diggers have been at
it all night . .tomorrow
if i'm lucky, i'll have breakfast
in Heaven. . .some crazy fishhook dangles
thru my window — i might as well
get up & walk on my forehead —
i might as well lose all my tickets. . .
i wish there was something i
wanted as badly as this fishhook
wants to express itself

dear mister congressman:
it's about my house — some time
ago i made a deal with a syrup company
to advertise their product on the side
facing the street — it wasnt so bad at
first, but soon they put up another
ad on the other side — i didnt even
mind that, but then they plastered
these women all over the windows with
cans of syrup in their arms — in exchange
the company paid my phone & gas bills &
bought a few clothes for the tots —i told
the town council that i'd do most anything
just to let some sun in the house but they
said we couldnt offend the syrup company
because it's called Gramma Washington's
Syrup & people tend to associate it with
the constitution. . .the neighbours dont help
me at all because they feel mat if anything
comes off my house, it'll have to go on theirs
& none of them want their houses looking like
mine — the company offered to buy my house as a
permanent billboard sign, but God, i got my
roots here & i had to refuse at first — now they
tell me some negroes are moving in down the
block — as you can see, things dont look
too good at the moment— my eldest son is
in the army so he cant do a thing — i
would appreciate any helpful suggestion
thank you

yours in allegiance Zorba the Bomb