S.A. GRIFFIN

A Million Years Ago & Now
(for David Lerner)


the homeless are
more in style
than ever

raving mad
messages of death
corrupt precious sleep
& sweeten our breakfast

people are fat with fear
spilling over their belts
& into their dresses
riding ten feet over the truth
everywhere
their wheels can
carry them

soul assassins
armed with shotgun dreams
murder the malls
& street corners
with their well coifed
cool

money
is still
worthless

the heart starves
& the days stack
one upon the other
waiting for the fall

as the war revels on with
its hopeless celebration
of grief

so you see David,
not much is different
since you're gone

but today
The Last Five Miles to Grace
flies into
El Lay
announcing the lavender
spring

& for awhile
the day is
transformed
by the
poem : a crush of verse
like a rock star
unfolding on the lips of
innocent
roses

a tumbling scotch

or golden
San Francisco
dressed in loose change
winking in the sun
& the world
has gone
fishing
for the
day


S.A. Griffin is the author of Unborn Again (Phony Lid),
A One Legged Man Standing Casually On Hollywood Blvd.
Smoking A Cigarette
(1989, Shelf Life Press), Heaven Is
One Long Naked Dance
(1993, Rose of Sharon Press),
Twisted Cadillac: A Spoken Word Odyssey
(with The Carma Bums, 1996, Sacred Beverage Press)
and Co-Editor of The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry
(1999, Thunder’s Mouth Press).






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