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MARC OLMSTED

 

Everyone Dies (Goodbye Joey Ramone)

 

Old I-Beam

rock club

boarded up -

memory rivers of

booze and drugs

poured through

1978-1985

-my band The Job

played there

twice

w/

The Offs

(lead singer

O.D.’d)

The Lounge Lizards

(leader now sober

writing movie

soundtracks)

-myself

teaching a

class on

Kerouac,

own poet scribbles

*

dot coms fold

Bush backs down

from China

pressured by

business

-the computer

programmer & his wife

downstairs

take up

smoking

hacking

phlegm in

the morning

*

graffiti mural

25 YEARS OF

PUNKING PUNK

side of the

liquor store

big metallic

block

letters - secret

language -

Latino gang

influence -

big scary tree

face BABES

IN TOYLAND

early 60’s

Disney

*

Joey Ramone

is dead-

tall geeky

punk messiah

eyes perpetually

shaded

chanting the

mantra GABBA

GABBA HEY!

dead of lymphoma

barely

older than me

-Kenny went

to high school

with you

“he always

looked exactly

the same”

jet black

long hair

visionary bird

garuda

beak outrageous

-one never

knows who’s death

will feel like

a friend’s -

at the news

of yours I

wept

then prayed

*

after a free

Ramones concert

we jumped in

a public

fountain

one of the happiest

days of my life

feverishly

pogoed to I

WANT TO BE

SEDATED &
TEENAGE LOBOTOMY

on “breeder’s

night” of

the gay club

Stud

jumped a

bus through

the back door

after ROCK ’N

ROLL HIGH SCHOOL

movie - you

blew up the

high school -

we were

kicked off the

bus

*

Phowa

is

Tibetan yoga

transference

of consciousness

-shoot through

the crown & image the

dead one doing the

same

merging into

Pure Land

which is this

world without

veil

“everything is

nirvana -

all sounds

are mantras -

all beings are

buddhas”

-my wife

and I plan

a ceremony

-tonight

when I beat

the dream

& burn incense

he’ll hear

the rock

‘n roll

 

 

Carcass Poet

 

Kerouac’s

scroll, the

original ON

THE ROAD -

one long page

one long road

(as Ginsberg said)

so Kerouac didn’t need

to stop typing -

previously

exhibited in the

De Young museum

religious relic

now at Christie’s

auction, skin

of the carcass poet

big

game trophy

going for a million & a half -

- “A lot of

traffic?” I

ask the receptionist

“Yeah.”

I wondered if

any Universities

had come forward

yet, adding

“If it gets into

a private collection

it'll be hard

to ever see”

She looks

over my

shoulder, disinterested

- The scroll itself

talks about Burroughs

an early-middle

section spread out

both ends of

the scroll in

Roman proclamation

clear glass rollers

- whole about

4 feet long -

an older man

hunches over

it with his

friend in her

50’s, the

flaming red

cockatoo-do

too young for

her now -

he has a smug

smile

- he blocks my

view

over the glass

sarcophagus

of the 4 ft. midget

Jack -

it’s the older

man’s book,

it’s everyone’s

book

just like people

say “Allen” instead

of “Ginsberg"

(but few call

him “Ginsey”) -

the magic’s

stolen,

you can’t

feel a thing

in the tiny

room, a

Japanese

man in

a suit

the karate

security

- downstairs

the shaved

head black

security guard

lets me out

“‘I'm gonna

go see it

myself”

he tells me,

as I push

the green

button unlocking

the glass door

into the street

Jack would have

liked him

“You should” I

say, regretting

it, University

teacher in

my mouth -

dressed in black

catching my

reflection

in a hearse

4/12/01 The scroll sold for 2.2 million to Jim Irsay owner of the Indianapolis Colts who also owns one of Elvis' guitars.