SECTION SEVEN
POETRY PAGE TWO

sm
COLUMN EIGHTY-FOUR, FEBRUARY 1, 2003
(Copyright © 2003 The Blacklisted Journalist)

THERE
I was walking down the street one day
and some plain clothes cops in a shopping
mall I didn't recognize searched me.
"Yer clean!Hit da bricks?"he said as I put
my things in my pockets I said"Can you
tell me where to find Manhattan?"
"Don't know what yer talkin about, move
along!" he said.
I said "NO! It was here!"
"Bullshit!" said the thug with the badge.
"Now move!"

Oh no, man it's here somewhere.
I know.
I was there.
I smoked crack with the hookers on
11th Avenue.
I was there
I partied on East 3rd Street with Hell's
Angels.
I was there
I danced all night in the basement at
Save The Robots
I was there
In the blizzard of '95 when cop cars
couldn't navigate Ludlow Street and I
celebrated the bounty of snow with hero-
in bought from thirteen year old Puerto
Ricans hawking it in the streets like news
boys. I was there. I bought my morning
coffee and cocaine at the bodega on Ave-
nue B.
I was there.
I sold penny stocks to compulsive gam-
blers at a bucketshop
I was there
I smoked angel dust at an outdoor rave at
a garbage dump
I was there
I talked philosophy and broke bread with
the natives of Tompkins Square
You know I was there
I got a hand job from two chicks in the
backroom of the Tunnel
I was there
The cheap rents were "still" in the East
Village"
So I was there
A French hipster turned me on to the
sounds of Alice Donut
I was there
I listened to merengue at private Latin
clubs while the guns and the thousand
dollar bills sat idly on the table.
I was there
Saw 'em break dance at the Roxy, man
they were good,
And I was there,

"Look pal", said the cop
"Get dis in yer head, dat place don't
exist and it never did!"
"But I know it did!" I protested
"I see". Said the cop cordially.

He pulled the gun and pumped two
rounds in my head. Like the place I
was looking for, I was never, ever,
there.  ##

CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX OF COLUMN EIGHTY-FOUR


CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX OF COLUMNS

The Blacklisted Journalist can be contacted at P.O.Box 964, Elizabeth, NJ 07208-0964
The Blacklisted Journalist's E-Mail Address:
info@blacklistedjournalist.com
 
 

THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST IS A SERVICE MARK OF AL ARONOWITZ