As/Is







11.11.2024


The White Album: Revolution #9


 

At the Satellite      coffeehouse Chomsky-ites         have tattoos of Eastern symbols

     (I-Ching, yin-yang, Buddha)       all over their arms     the screen-saver

for the computer     is ImpeachBush.com     while they sit huddled    over pamphlets

       printed on cheap paper     put together at Kinko’s     about how to make bombs

overthrow the gov’t     grow hemp    smoke hemp     know hemp     be hemp

        or the way to join a food co-op     that has exotic berries with anti-oxidants 

& which has been going     in West Philly     since 1969     but these kids

         were raised on indie punk     and their bands     only know a few chords

but everything about suffering      and it comes out in songs       like glass shards

          no one has Health Insurance      many have bikes     get in accidents

get addicted to pills      but no one much cares       Health Insurance is for yuppies

          what is wanted is a community     anti-everything      material goods

are derided in favor of principles     but there is no public outlet      to bring them

          to the attention of the masses     who are disdained anyway     for not having

tattoos     playing in punk bands      reading Chomsky     shopping at Mariposa

          knowing what scum directs the media       what polished, rehearsed scum

polished, rehearsed, privileged      by luck and education      to brainwash us with

           imbecile illusions of happiness            but these kids ain’t happy either

they want something else          what they can’t admit to wanting     a real voice,

            real status     real position     real influence     real opportunity

& it’s not going to happen        here at the Satellite     so they sip brackish drinks

            unsweetened by sugar         give out their pamphlets      promote their bands

find themselves at thirty          borderline derelict       addicted to Percosets

            that they get through covert means           which are unreliable    some have canes

as if this were an old age home       which it is      as Shelley was aged by radicalism

            unchecked by moderation          emotional, psychological, or otherwise

so that it’s the world against them            and they ape contentment with this

            scenario that sears its lines onto their foreheads               oh the irony

that Penn is just a few blocks away             where Chomsky went, and me

            where real influence is possible           owing to prestige and money

but don’t call West Philly University City here             you’ll get spit on

            because it’s seen as a marketing ploy            to destroy the Satellite

its espirit de corps          atmosphere of huddled hairiness          tattooed twists

             wanton sex          perverse reliance on self-medication     & impending age

which reduces sangfroid to bitterness       just like black coffee     & black coffee

              is what the Satellite does best        Edith Piaf could sing a chanson

just for the Satellite           only in triple time     like a punk song     everyone

              would bow their heads, knowing truth        knowing failure    knowing

salvaging a life from radicalism      is a scary venture       not for sissies

               or those who want Health Insurance          to keep them alive