Larry Sawyer
Dinosaur's Lament
where will I see you standing on the lips of a cannon
no words uttered will return to me my rhyme
cities are sleeping bombs are busy dropping
forever they will be darkly flying
and I've decided that I'm northward moving
into a new pair of pants come summer
all the shit rivers of the world lay freezing
and all the fathers of the families of all time
are my curators here in the museum of a guilt ridden mind
and a beautiful flower of exhaust from a rusted-out Fiat
has the gentle power to destroy the Parthenon
can I simply take a meteor shower this morning
to wash clean my grime of belonging to such a sad generation
like all generations doomed to suffer and fail
will someone there translate chocolate
or give back the gift of tobacco
return these stolen lands to their ghosts
Egyptian watches on a street corner memory
and the sphinx is a man on Fourteenth St.
to see it all happen how the voyage began
and what became of that whale
the last canto called earth now fatuously ending
don’t thoughts jump synapse watch the sin tax
for we’ve inherited a tennis shoe revolution
moorings are slipped, understand the real gyp
took one last look shrugged and gave up
we're caught in the middle of a hold-up
pouring milk over a breakfast of stopwatches
painting budget-deficit bombs with a biblical inscription
to ram god into the minds of an illiterate dead?
26:i:05
Chicago, Illinois