Book of Blues (7 page)

—Ma—

Snffff—(bing bring, se ting)

—“Yo conee na nache”—

D ding—d ding—d-ding—

Cramp!—O ya ta dee

—ker blum—kheum—

Hnffff—drrrrrrrr—drosh—

Pepock—Sniffle—t bda—

Want a piece a bread

No

Jack? Hnff—Ta ra ta ra fuee

—Te wa ta ra teur—

Grrr—he na pa powa shetaw—

Tck tick tick Today is Sunday

Eternally the lightning runs

Through form after form formless

In positive and negative repose

It makes no difference that your uncle

Was black with sufferance & bile,

The whild childscriming skies will

Always be the muchacho same

Much words been written about it

The message from infinite

That will be was brought to us

Is one

But because it has no name

We can only call it Bibit

“It was Liebernaut who had

the dream of uncovering Carthage”

The snow in the sea mountains

In Egypt under rosebushes

Fifi's fruits & sweets

My Egyptian connection's

Gonna be late, the conductor

Wouldnt take my change

The Egyptian conductor

Wouldnt nod

Sandalwood and piss and pulque

Burning in every door,

Mighty Marabuda River

Flows along

Sampans and river thieves

And woodsplitters and blind

Thieves' Markets & imbeciles

“See Milan and see the world”

Heppatity the twat kid

Hatted by the racetrack

Horses' moon barns

spun on a gibbee

For lying alone

My poems were stolen

by Fellaheen Thieves

In the city of the midnight

The title was “Fellaheen Blues”

And justice is done to Rome

I'll never see them again

Learn what sweet development

I'd harbored up to meditate

All's left now

is these hateful

New Fallaheen Blues

which mean nothing

and I hate them

In the other book I cried

Ah-da Ah-da

the parturient spinsters

that prate i the dining hill

Are having blue venison

To goose their old hyms

Og

But I'll tell you—electricity

Runs through all these forms

And we call it electricity

And notice the forms

But what's hoppen in nothin

Is wha hoppen in nothin

See?

The butchers a de Bronx

Ourter now dat

—the late night tweed diners

Italian restaurants on Bleecker

that sing in the staring blue street

with cigarettes of legs

Ourter know dat

The wild outflow wow open

O gate of golden honey

Hopin hill up above

And below & within

The kin, aye, my,

What a roseate balloon

For lovers of kin

Part of the morning stars

The moon and the mail

The ravenous X, the raving ache,

—the moon Sittle La

Pottle, teh, teh, teh,—

The tatata of thusness

Twatting everywhere—

The poets in owlish old rooms

who write bent over words

know that words were invented

Because nothing was nothing

In use of words, use words,

the X and the blank

And the Emperor's white page

And the last of the Bulls

Before spring operates

Are all lotsa nothin

which we got anyway

So we'll deal in the night

in the market of words

And he sits embrowned

in a brown chest

Before the palish priests

And he points delicately

at the sky

With palm and forefinger

And's got a halo

of gate black

And's got a hawknosed

watcher who loves to hate

But has learned to meditate

It do no good to hate

So watches, roseate laurel

on head

In back of Prince Avolokitesvar

Who moos with snow hand

And laces with pearls

the sea's majesty

The little bug thrasheth

on the table

Hungry to burn in the candle

of flames

Jerks at the gate-bottoms

of wax cold hide

Albions and Albans

to his little sight

Leaps to be browned

in the roast rite

Soars & tries to reach

dizzy height

Falls in the temples

and quivers & slaps

Playin like a schoolboy

in the valleys

Of silver & ivory hate

ELEVEN VERSES OF GARVER

I

I had a slouch hat too one time

The old slouch hat

I just keep walkin around

And he keeps walkin around with me

Around and round that necktie

counter we went

When it rained I wore my old

slouch hat

It was a good felt that

I had to carry through many

rainy day, late fall

and the early spring

Perhaps it was a rainy day

And the house dick mighta saw

My hat

Each tie on that ring

Worth six bucks, Brooks Brothers,

Sixty bucks wortha ties

Slacks with peculiarities

I couldnt even find a pair of slacks

I thought it was suitable to wear

II

Wrapped one pair around me

And pinned it with a safety pin

And pulled up my trousers and

Went out looked at myself in the mirror

‘O no, those wont do'

And I walked out

Wrap the slacks around my waist

Took two other pair

went to the mirror

threw them at the salesman

‘No those wont do—good

afternoon' and walked out

The slouch hat I got at Harvard

Club, Yale Club, Princeton Club

one or the other

Dartmouth Club

University Club

Always barred the Yatch Club

because it was a little over

my kin

III

The doorman knew that only

Mr Astor Mr Vanderbilt

Mr Whitney belonged

He couldnt say ‘Good morning

Mister Astor' because

he knew I wasnt Mister

Astor

I always figured a way to heel

into those other clubs

Not only a member of Who's

Who but a Who's Who

also have to be a member

of Who's Who in New York

in the special clique of Who's

Hoo—slouch hat!

I get in the Athletic Club

many time

IV

And I'd go up in the Billiard Room

And I would wander back around

The room, hands in back,

And every coat rack I backed

Up against feel for the wallet

One day I walked

Outa there with ten wallets

Bellboy lookin me over

Pretty soon a very dignified looking

gentleman came up and buzzed

the bell boy

He says “Who?” and I says

“Man told me his name, while

We're drinkin at the bar,

And told me to meet him

In the billiard-room

of the Athletic Club

I dont see him—so I best I

better go”

V

“Tell me about the old slouch

hat”

One of my numerous trips

to one of the numerous clubs

in New York City

The hat finally was left

in the hotel

which I had to leave

rather hurriedly one night

never to return

so the hat was given

to the castoffs of the hotel

which they collect

and rummage sells

May now be worn by one

Of the members of Skid Row

New York City—the Bowery

“I seen that hat

by moonlight”

VI

I had a pointed mustache

and I mean pointed

half inch from here

Double breasted vest

and a Derby hat

and striped trousers

English shoes, black,

very pointed, they were

Hannah Shoes

People on Broadway'd turn

and look at me

The worst is yet to come

I had a pince nez

with a long black ribbon

to my buttonhole

And I wore a carnation

white or red

Boy did I look like somethin

VII

A year later I got caught

I was dressed differently

and everything

But boy that mustache

and that pince nez

was really out of this world

I used that outfit six months

I finally had to pack it in

because it was too well-worn

Pince nez was in a coat

I stole

Mustache I grew in the

sanitarium

While taking one of my

numerous drug cures

My mother'd come to see me

She says “Oh No!

Cut it off!”

“I'm just havin a little fun, mother”

VIII

Took it on the lam

And went to Canada

late at night I'm fulla

morphine and I come down

fulla goofballs too

This guy had ventriloquist doll

And he gave out this Texas Guinan

Routine “Hello Sucker, we

like your money as well

as anybody else's—s matter

of fact the bigger your roll

the more we take ya”

He used to get everybody

interested with the doll

and cutout silhouettes

put stripes in your tie

Wound up in his room

gave him a shot of morphine

IX

Out on the highway I thumbed a ride

into Buffalo and I put the bum

on the guy for something to eat

—'Eat in my drugstore'—

So we went in the back

And he had corn on the cob

And boiled potatos, ‘Say fellow

I always hear people talk

about morphine, what's it look

like?'—he shows me—he

had a key a cabinet and

he had bottles of hundreds

quartergrains halfgrains

pantapon delauddit everything

and soon as he tended

the customers I emptied the

bottles—got outa there pretty

quick, bought a safety pin

in Buffalo and took a shot

in the toilet

X

Come out and saw a fellow

shaving, his coat hanging there,

hung my own coat and gave

his coat a brush of my hand,

felt his wallet, washed my hands,

and went out and took off

with the wallet

So I started out on a shoplifting

campaign in Buffalo

wasnt very experienced at it

Started out with a topcoat

and I sold it in a taxicab stand

Next day I decided to get myself

some suits

and I went up

I had a suitbox

I walked about & put the suitbox

in one of the dressingrooms

Looked & fooled in the mirror

Went out, I hocked those two

XI

Next day like a damn fool

go out to the same store

but I got a newspaper

instead of a suitbox

thought I'd try

a new routine

Two guys kinda watchin me

I went in wrapped myself up

two suits

went in the elevator

bottom gentleman

tapped me on the arm

‘Will you come with me

please?'

And the County Jail they ate

breakfast and got oatmeal

with one spoonful of molasses,

for lunch stew, mostly bones,

Graveyard Stew, and for supper

dinner at night

Beans—and you couldnt smoke

Kayo Mullins is always yelling

and stealing old men's shoes

Moon comes home drunk, kerplunk,

Somebody hit him with a pisspot

Major Hoople's always harrumfing

Egad kaff kaff all that

Showing little kids fly kites right

And breaking windows of fame

Blemish me Lil Abner is gone

His brother is okay, Daisy Mae

and the Wolf-Gal

Ah who cares?

Subjects make me sick

all I want is C'est Foi

Hope one time

bullshit in the tree

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I've had enough of foolin me

And making silly imagery