God's Crew

Emotions

Those without emotions

Are usually right.

There's nothing to distract them,

And all they see is light.

But people with compassion

Are people who can feel,

From whom the hateful wicked

Can very simply steal.

10-29-13

G

Underneath his madness

There is wisdom in his brain.

Angels tell their secrets

And confide in the insane.

Little children love him.

There is warmness in his soul,

An often gentle person

Who could never find a role.

People who are normal

Try to think and only sputter,

Believing there is truth

In the palaver that they utter.

10-29-13

 

Chaos

I am crazy too.

Everybody is.

Look at what they say

And think that they believe.

In Brooklyn and in Syria

They'll shoot you with a gun.

A small quartet of Christians

In a booth discussing scripture

(Really it's a table),

And I wish that they would move.

10-29-13

Phony

The waiter's smile is broader

And the patron makes a joke.

Everybody laughs.

A little interest is feigned.

The most the patron thinks

Is that he's funny.

Then forgets it.

I go into Denny's

And believe that I am loved.

The country's full of idiots,

And I'm the biggest fool.

10-29-13

 

The Rich

No one in America is rich.

You never see them. They don't come to town.

Living on a hill, around the bottom

Is a wall, a gate that has a guard.

On the hill are houses

And some helicopter pads.

This is how they travel, come and go.

No one in America is rich.

They don't have telephones. They don't get mail.

They aren't listed at the IRS.

10-29-13

 

G

There's a mansion on the crest of Badger,

Fenced and gated, with a liveried guard.

Helicopters ferry him about,

And he never has to drive to town.

The IRS is unaware of him.

And that is where he lives. He has a lawn.

Also he has money, which he gives

To the poor. It's inexhaustible,

As are the poor. And he sleeps and dreams

When it pleases him. He builds computers,

Making new computers out of old.

Life is sweet. And six or seven cats

Make him happy when he is alone,

Which he seldom is. His friends are legion.

10-29-13

 

God's Crew

Will a gun convince me he's insane?

Did Rene go crazy finally?
Flushing sheets down toilets of the hospice

Where he worked. Or leaving her alone

And stranded with no purse in San Francisco,

And leaving with her car. Itinerant.

“Bursting people's bubbles” was his phrase

Constantly. His bubble had been burst!

In retrospect I should have been afraid.

Everybody took him on his terms.

And I was blind. And am. What does it take?

That just the incoherent are insane?

Now he's old. No longer lithe and sexy.

Living in a house, a double bed

And nothing else except a clutch of puppies

Crapping on the carpet. That was Joe.

He said he loved me, sinking in the sand.

I never think that somebody is crazy

Unless he's turning circles on the sidewalk.

I think this means that I am crazy too.

What is better? Rich men on a mountain,

Behind a gated wall, who pay no taxes?

Ordinary people who vote yes

On Proposition 8, and love their children,

One of whom grows up to be a fag?
The ghettos and the slums that barely have

Enough to eat, and vandalize and steal?
What is better? Jesus loves them all.

10-30-13