The brainwashed masses
from upper classes
can’t help but be asses,
drinking from glasses
made of fine crystal ashes
buying waterfront houses
with money from spouses
made rich in clubhouses
who won’t share outhouses
but frequent whorehouses
how far must you fall
how far will you crawl
how much will you bawl
who will you call
to avoid death’s pale caul?
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven, 1957 was a stunned town
Illegal bars and whorehouses for the many sailors
Who brought material to re- built the town
It was a summer and in bombed out neighbourhoods
There as accordion music
And patriotic songs from the war were sung
I was so young back then, and the whores spoilt me rotten
So many ships coming in they were busy and
Then there was the American base to service, but even
Then, at my tender age, I could not stop thinking
How efficient the Germans were they had lost but were
Strangely happy re- building the lost years, the war
Had cleaned their souls.
Indictment
They say it’s wrong to dream in Africa,
to win your heart is to lose your way.
Jungle overgrown, government overthrown,
Europe’s long drop, urinal of the U.S.A
No one wants you there,
nobody kicks you out.
Best to be a serpentine,
and snake your way out South.
Facing the equator,
you’re standing upside down.
High pitched music,
hide the truth lower down.
Only in killing fields,
does memory grow short.
Longing is taller than the ever leaping Masai,
dreamy warriors pleading for another way.
Hallucogenic cannabis, halleluia contraband.
a crazy little foot path,
Leads to unadvertised paradise.
The cynic and the sick,
meet the arrogant and the rich.
In hallways and corridors,
hospitals and whorehouses,
To sell our innocence and divide the loot.
a penny for your liver.......
a pound for your heart......
look away Dixie land..... look away....
This dirge is for my country,
my lamentation lasts all the day.
This river of tears just flows along,
before she melts and disappears,
yea, before she dissipates into an ocean gone wrong.
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.