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

ANNE WALDMAN

from Martyrology

“Is it really big enough?” Niels Bohr asked J. Robert Oppenheimer

in December 1943, the day he arrived at Los Alamos where the Americans

were secretly inventing the new bomb. Oppenheimer understood

him immediately: would it be big enough to make war impossible?

¨

wonder her recombinant

power

for

the

hunt

virgins waiting in heaven

martyrdom as performance

Purify your heart & clear it from all earthly matters. The time of fun and waste is

gone. The time of judgement has arrived. O God you who open all doors, open all doors

to me.

martur = to witness, to attest

wonder influence ripples in the night, intentionality,

neurotransmitter release

or sucks off nipples, mutters revenge

I can’t tell my brain tissue from yours it’s so ideologically framed

wonder what is the current below

you all get below

& wonder the many glia that surround your neurons

would she be big enough to make war impossible?

critical current ferrets you out

as you get with that flow

Andromeda a galaxy far a way

so far a relief I don’t have to worry about it

what is the influence of Africa on our potentialities & would merit end of war in all

quarters, my brave accomplices

what strikes is odd juxtaposition to ask this question now

what is the wrench to not roast me here

in front of all my people

shard glaze shard red dirt tile roof all translate as a safe-house

(the prophet was always optimistic

as in the movie a young Anne plays the wife of

the terrorist

& he had to hide (in the safe-house and not-so-safe-house

someone sniffed the air (was cool it was autumn just so you know

could this be doubted in a ghost word

& Anne said:

- We walked along the beach it was the beach at Deal. My husband, who in real

- life was my friend Tom

- He was going to assassinate the president

I can’t remember, did it work out?

& one heard voices then saying “on” or “turn left now” your face to him endures

he has a toy gun in this act of choice & purpose

under the shadow of the mega bomb

stone floor,…when my struggle

autumnal sweep…. when my struggle when my struggle

¨

someone is watching us &

took the flash of synergy

colors were black and white, edge of industrial cites, black and white

flash of synergy

flannel, black and white and you go and stand up for someone

even if it means you are shunned in the whole mercenary house

covet my speech then

Al-Hallaj

the one enraptured says

tie me up, gag me

we were closer to surveillance

& under a strobe a flash

adjacent to a woodshed weapon pile of leaves

someone is watching us who abandoned her post by the lake

and took the

road through the desert remember?

it was our first movie abiding motion

women-many-aliases said, it was ours, our “time”

¨

well you can’t have her dying a noble death that would make a martyr of her

shot by bullets exploded in a suicide blast too risky die martyr for her cause

cause of avenging a father cause of democracy

can’t make a martyr of her now it’s already happened it happens martyrs will happen

make up story make it unseemly not the death of a martyr hit by the lever of a sunroof how secular it sounds “lever” “sunroof” how unseemly not the cause for death of a martyr “lever”, “sunroof” could have happened anyway not in the middle of

chaos as this suicide bomb and shrapnel and gunshot wounds

how much more martyr is “gunshot wounds” is “suicide bombing” is “democracy”

narrative call it master so “secular” so “patriarchal” no women at all around her

they say now skull fracture when she was thrown by the force

of the suicide bomb and

hit her head on the “lever” of the “sunroof” of the car in which she was riding

not enough protection, blame the martyr

can’t unmake a “martyr” now too late to unmake “martyr”

but for this she will be “martyr” certainly no mater “lever” no matter “sunroof”

but matter “democracy”

“democracy” “loaded” “as” “well” “as” “being” “lauded”

with a Negraponte with a loaded history

________________________________________

“I had no idea I had nourished a viper at my breast”

¨

Jan–March 08 (Venezia)

artyrology

[Originally published in NHS 2008, http://www.poetspath.com/napalm/nhs08/Anne_Waldman.htm.]