H e a r t S o n s & H e a r t D a u g h t e r s of A l l e n G i n s b e r g

N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 4 : A r c h i v e s E d i t i o n

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

[Originally published in NHS 2002, http://www.poetspath.com/napalm/nhs02/olmsted.html.]