Blank Generation: EVEN WHEN I'M DOWN, I HEAR SYMPHONIES

      .             Apollo and Bacchus hanged in the neon marketplace;      
                    Cold feet under etherial faces.
      Bore-ed by the lack of temerity,
      Slack desire suborning the bandannaed faces
5     Of hippies contented by Peace, and not Energy;
      Marijuana leaves placidly
      Shading the crib and high-chair.
      Bored by the lack of passion
      Expanded bank accounts conferred upon their  elders
10    Lacking still the capacity, it seemed, messrs,
      To "cope;" they craved the indelible in action.
      100 punks, or fewer, or one,
      Concoct out of impossible desire impossible  reality:
      Burning ambitions in Waldorf St, or SoHo's zone,
15    Shed from the aether
      These symphonies.
      With a tongue of justice,
      With an eye of fire,
      With an ear made fabulous
20    By beloved mind's one wept flame: desire.
      Rotten's masquerades, 
      Sid's pinioned victory,
      The burboned voice of Hell establishing  "blankness" as 
      priority
25    In a world floating valueless; incisive, 
           the eye of ice.
      Aching faces brave the astonishing light,
      Asserting TRUTH in ecstatic sanction;
      Our redemption was individual,
30    London our capitol.
      Our "decade" compressed to " '77!"
      We acknowledged, as aftereffect, a fey, uneven
                 "inheritance" of "reticence."
      Youth as a remembered depravity
35    Gives no living soul satisfaction; relentless
      Sojourning away from their parents' questioning
      Consigned to them the "aridity" of bliss.
      *            *           *           *
                          When dust hath hushed the roses,
40                        Unmeditating silence
                          This crimson-cerise splinter of song
                          Encloses
                          On time's blank slate
                          Lick this, and relate:
45                        "Here twists,
                                        with upraised fist,
                           An Anarchist!"

 

From the collection "Ascent"

Written by Gregg Glory [Gregg G. Brown]

More information available on gregglory.com.