Long Kegs Poems

Written in summer of 1976.


I used to eat my lunch with groups
of businessmen from Campbell Soups.

We drank a drink at lunch each day
Of Coca-Cola mixed with hay

And talked of pending corporate plans
And willow-haired orangutans.

I spent...

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In my chambers where phantasmagoria undulate
    not as vigilant watchers but as mnemonic parasites
    I ruminate—
        no longer a singular entity but...

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"The Third Degree"

I’m thinking, if I am to commence this degree next year, then perhaps easier to have cats. I can’t leave a dog alone in the apartment all day. Unless I do the entire...

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The Palace Guardiennes were the sultan’s delight,
resplendent in their tight uniforms
of scarlet and magenta silks,
embroidered with golden flowers,
with sterling silver scimitars in
ruby studded scabbards
hanging off lovely hips,
and boots and belts of finest faun-skin
and helmets topped...

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How I Got Rich and What Happened Then

I used to eat my lunch with groups
of businessman from Campbell's Soups.

We drank a drink at lunch each day
Of Coca-Cola mixed with hay

And talked of pending corporate plans
And...

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People say my poetry is mostly doom and gloom
But I’m a funny person and I’ll prove it to you soon
My wit and sharp ripostes are a constant delight
Let’s see if I can tell this story...

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With that invisibilty of age
I can fly my life like a kite !
Uninvited and unseen,
albescent, grey, you know what I mean,
( not the first flush of youth or strong,
the young forget that we were young,...

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They hung around the beer joint with the finest Western wear
with thumbs tucked in their belt loops and such a studly air.
But those boots weren't made for stirrups and were polished to a sheen,
and on...

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the following sloop of words rowed and towed together as they 
came into my periscoptic poop deck with slight emendation 
from thee oar ridge in hull.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
along the atlantic, bruitted by cavalier indiscriminate jerry rigged 
salient...

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The first big party of the year
Right after the pre-season game
A bunch of juniors and seniors take off
Driving around down the highway.
Pulling up to the designated house
Where the parents aren't at home
They don't know about...

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The fire burned warm and brightly,
    As the little band of wagons were gathered close and their animals were 
tethered tightly.
The ladies sat about preparing meals for the coming day,
  ...

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Many now, the years have passed,
Since I found my heart at sea,
And never have I shared the tale
That I now will grant to Thee ...

We'd been a-sail for fifty weeks -
Chasing blues and fins and...

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IF THE CREEK DON’T RISE COME FRIDAY NIGHT,
WE’LL HAVE ONE HELLOFA TIME.
HAVE A LITTLE GIN AND BEER TO GO AROUND,
AND MAYBE SOME ANNIE GREENSPRINGS WINE.
GET THE HICKORY WOOD TO BURNING REAL SLOW,
SO THE EMBERS WILL...

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Nkem was beaten black and white,
She stole tomatoes in the market
When she could not afford to buy one
To make stew for her hungry children.


Not my pot of soup any way
That she was beaten by the...

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Having been a journalist for the past forty years, now ready to make my final accord, I had to cover this one last story.  My days have been long, and my shuteye has been...

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Twere a   blisterin day, on da Fundy Bay, aboard da ‘ Black Angel of da Blue”, 
with a crew of 32, whilst resting a spell, wid a thunderin clap of grog ,
when da...

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Three single trees hang
One each between the posts that
hold up the front porch
roof.  Each one off of an old
horse drawn wagon from years past

On the side of one
post is attached an old
dinner triangle
Used to...

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HAVE YOU HEAR FROM MY FATHER?
Have you hear from my father, okadigbo?
He was among those captured in the oil well
Around the black river of delta in the south.
Days ago they had gone with their hungry...

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The King of Kegs

He was the town drunk, that
everyone loved.
Didn't care about being arrested
nor his children going food less.
But at the bar, oh such a big hit.
Always knew tons of jokes, he
was the King of...

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However you dress...compress these clever creatures…

More not less..whenever features...success..

To be Francis...what about Bacon…

Salty...naughty.. fatty flavour to savour.. 

Doing each dish a favour...a porky saviour…

Get a hard on from a lardon..

What’s much better than pancetta…

Peck at...

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Some bootleg beer that only came in kegs
during the twenties made me think of you.
Like an old IPA, filled with hops, that I 
just had to drink because it was all there
was.

Some intellectual fever. 
It...

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Big brown eyes and long brown hair
Shes so beautiful it isn't fair.
With every step she seems to glow
she's so pretty but she doesn't know...

High school jock with long strong legs
hes wasting his years drinking down...

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They ate the carcasses of worms, drunk the blood
Of ants, pests and rodents;
So did this people who dwelt in these anthills.
Till their ailing bodies wreaked, smothered with
Pain and unrest.

They crawled upon the ancient footpaths 
That...

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I am a son of the dark continent
By conception and ancestral offshoot 
This black earth,
Where my dark ancestors deposited 
The birth right of my life 
In the dark bowels of our black sacred earth,
As the...

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Under the moonlight, the voices chant.
Young voices, and nearby, the old men rant
Over kegs of fresh palm wine and kola nuts
Spitting out proverbs and some, with coconuts.

The locust chirps purifies the atmosphere
Mingling with the scent...

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