Then go, spare your people misery with (what do you call it

that greaseless hanging sundry notion

sunday trackless mind      (hitting the years and plunging

                                           forward kicking your reasons

                                           into the mud – illogical))

The Abominable Savior selling art and photography

                                            magazines behind the fire hydrant

coming cops flamethrowing the obscenity ha so precise

                                                                    (fahrenheit 451.2)

he’s screaming NAIL ME HEAT NAIL ME PIGS and running across

the street his hair is on fire to sell some italian beer in

                                                       his monastery frock

                          When he next appeared, he

                          said, “Well, I’d have put on  

                        a coat and tie if I’d known

                        all about this.”

                          All that seems easy enough.

                        But still, predictions, at

                        best, can only be made about

                        two days in advance.  He en-

                        closed a letter from his phy-

                        sician.  A priest had died of

                        a heart attack after the

                        wreck. Small wonder. The tem-

                        perature hit 91 degrees at 3

                        p.m. – the high for the day.

                        And the humidity reached 84

                        percent.

                          He directed his agencies

                        to develop new techniques to

                        safeguard the world’s food

supply.  He explained that the

astronauts mix hot water for

three minutes with the con-

tents of a thin packet to

make chicken stew.  Finally he

demonstrated how he slides

down into his sleeping com-

partment at night.

Answer to Yesterday’s Puzzle.

J I E G F T I,   C D C I K U Y

G V F   Q T F D G,    G V F

J U G V F T     U O    V D T K U G E

D Y P    D C U J X Y D G X U Y E

U O    G V F    F D T G V.

sowhat if st. peter couldn’t make

it to the party?  We’ll have a

helluva lot more fun without him

anyway (now where did he stash

that case-a beer?)

                                              somebody told us thismorning about

                                              antichrist keeps all his machineguns

                                              and handgrenades in the ashcans

                                              behind the pollution factory

                                              ((obviously, savin’ ‘em for a

                                                                                     rainy day))

saintgeorge came back today bellowing WHERE’S THE BLOODY BEAST?

and went off atop some castrated camel south i think sirlancelot

came knocking on my door lastnight to tell me lasttime he saw

old george he was trying to slay this lighthouse

*(((i thought i was holding the paper upside down

                                                            but i wasn’t))) 

i guess i shouldn’t think

i think i shouldn’t guess

i guess i shouldn’t guess  but i know about satan you know because

                                         he passed this way long ago eating orange

                                         peels and throwing some of them down the

                                         middle of 69^th street and denying he was

                                         hungry he’d just had a BLT a the waldorf

nietzsche caught my attention hello you must be superman

oh no you’re way off i explained i was superman last week

but they kicked me out of the union i wish i had convinced

him because he followed me down the alleyways beating me

on the back of my head with his plastic crucifix

we hear they’re shooting the president this month oh yes

everybody thinks its for the best he claims someone put

his eyeballs in backwards while he was asleep and what

else can you do with a president who can only see within

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO PURITY IN HONOR? robertdylan yelled

out the window

         this evening they burned somemore phonographs

         and hoisted another statue to saint rudy of the valley

the shadow laughing

at the sundance kid     nyah hah hah hah

                                    i messed up your mind sundance    

                                      yer crazy said sundance it was the

                                      sugarcube i had for breakfast

                                      besides

                                                   i can see ya

                                               i ran into lamontcranston around

                                               the corner and he’s selling

                                                                                information

 i was out of town for a year with the edsullivan freakshow

 and when i returned my mind was totaled

 the highwaymen had stolen my windows and kicked down my

                                                                                     chimney

 well you should have known it was coming/sooner or later

 (when they told you that)

 noah bought the titanic for 27 cents on the dollar

 but man them icebergs is MELTING

 and then there’s dante: selling tickets to his latest play but

 vongoethe is shouting HERESY and threatens to bomb the theater

 ((incidentally don’t be surprised if you see antichrist there))

 holyjesusandmaryOurLadyofGodsAcre it’s (they say you can reach

                                                                        circles 1&2 thru

                                                                        carlsbad caverns)

                                                                                       RAINING

 what a sight wow royalcanadianmounties lining the shores of

 alaska waiting for the reds to throw tomatoes of something

 and THERE GOES ANTICHRIST on a motorcycle heading for the

 front with his wilkinson sword and god on his side

 there’s all these nuts jumping off the roofs in their CD  

 helmets and yelling TURN OUT THEM LIGHTS YA MOTHERS

 and satan is calling everybody out of the earth with his

 walkie-talkie

                       genghis khan and attila the hun

                          (they’re old friends of course)

                       bluebeard and his wife lucretia borgia

                       nebuchadnezzar and pontius pilate

                          (they were on the police force)

 we’re all watching from my bathroom window and sending out

 s.o.s. notes up on helium balloons but that bastard alcapone

                                                       keep shooting them down

--- listen…

     i think they’re tearing my color tv apart

                                                                                      then

                                    robertdylan broke:  that sonofabitch

          antichrist stole my CYCLE

          and when we wouldn’t let him go after

          the guy he threatened to slash

                                           his wrists

they’re burning gideon bibles in times square and announcing

                                                           KING JAMES IS NEXT

hey said timleary i think the angels are here

this tap’s giving us hot and cold running blood

just then malcolmx came running upstairs hey brothers

i just saw our landlady and you oughta dig what they wrote

                                                               on her FOREHEAD

it’s the end said robertdylan we might as well pass the time

so we all sat down to play scrabble

i wanted to spell ARMAGEDDON but it had too many letters

and all i could find were Z’s.

   [July 1969]