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February 24, 2021

Lawrence Ferlinghetti is dead.


"The world is a beautiful place"

Lawrence Ferlinghetti 1919-2021

          The world is a beautiful place 
                                               to be born into 
if you don't mind happiness 
                                        not always being 
                                                              so very much 
fun 
     if you don't mind a touch of hell 
                                             now and then 
             just when everything is fine 
                                                  because even in 
heaven 
                             they don't sing 
                                                all the time

          The world is a beautiful place 
                                                to be born into 
if you don't mind some people dying 
                                                   all the time 
                 or maybe only starving 
                                              some of the time 
         which isn't half bad 
                                      if it isn't you 

Oh the world is a beautiful place 
                                            to be born into 
       if you don't much mind 
                                      a few dead minds 
              in the higher places 
                                           or a bomb or two 
                    now and then 
                                        in your upturned faces 
    or such other improprieties 
                                          as our Name Brand 
society 
                           is prey to 
                                       with its men of distinction 
         and its men of extinction 
                                           and its priests 
                     and other patrolmen 
                                                    and its various 
segregations 
         and congressional investigations 
                                                      and other 
constipations 
                      that our fool flesh 
                                               is heir to 

Yes the world is the best place of all 
                                                   for a lot of such 
things as 
          making the fun scene 
                                            and making the love scene 
and making the sad scene 
                                       and singing low songs and
having
inspirations 
and walking around 
                            looking at everything 
                                                       and smelling 
flowers 
and goosing statues 
                           and even thinking 
                                                  and kissing people 
and 
     making babies and wearing pants 
                                                  and waving hats and 
                                    dancing 
                                             and going swimming in 
rivers 
                              on picnics 
                                        in the middle of the summer 
and just generally 
                         'living it up' 

Yes 
   but then right in the middle of it 
                                            comes the smiling 

mortician 

https://youtu.be/l11MUjuK43M

Mourning # 5


Mourning # 5

 

I’ve heard of lots of homeless people in the USA

but none with the virus, you'd think candidates, in fact 

I read that out of 7,000 something infected persons

only three got the crud outdoors, so you’re good to go

if you stay indoors alone all year or two

or stay outdoors all the time …

those cardboard tents get cold though

no, it’s the human contact that gets you

not between stock brokers and them all

the only thing that makes life bearable

is what could take your life in a few days

from that first cough and fever to

no funeral no memorial no church

no wake no dinner party no friends

no relatives no kids if not housemates

no parents – the new strain favors

the young – and no sympathy from

anyone in government – I DON’T CARE,

DO U? is all you have left.

when your homeless bones leave your soul --

 

---- Kathi Shepherd and her daughter

did not attend the family Christmas party

because of the pandemic.

Father, ex-husband, twin sister, older sister

brother-in-law all positive within days

no family discount here, you all pay.

Father, Cecil, on oxygen and gasping

please come hold my hand

I cannot do that, Dad

things were getting better, a vaccine

things are so much worse. Why, oh,

why, do we have to live this way

or maybe today, die this way?