bottom lines

bottom line
or at least one of them

is that this town may be too straight
to support my self-expression

and it's not just because
I self-medicate
strive for a hypo-manic lifestyle
and have no common sense

but because of where I come from
an insane family
and New York roots

it has always been clear to me
the world as it is
is coming to an end

___________________

and so I remain drawn to Amsterdam
a city six feet below sea level

and with global warming
sinking fast

and ugly Berlin
occupied, destroyed again

the last of Germany to fall
in eternal shame
to the genocidal fascists

and the utter chaos of Rome

I understand much of Latin America
knowing no future
and severed from its past

likewise knows only
the fantasy of the present

and Cuba
so often betrayed

yet surviving with rooftop gardens
street music and guts

_____________________


there is hope

one never knows if perhaps inner changes
can generate the adjustments necessary
to assure one's necessary autonomy

I have also met an instrument maker
wishing to form an ensemble
based solely on

dance-ability

and surely one of these lovely goddesses
will remember with me
the joys of our genderedness

in any case
I am over my grouchiness

and quite aware
that within and
or without

change is certainly afoot