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Order this writing in the Charlie Newman May 2010 cc&d poetry collection book “Deckard Kinder/ Charlie Newman” |
 
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the dream
Charlie Newman
The American Dream
keeps us running in circles
getting ours [getting ours]
serving up hell time in family sized portions
remembering numb non responsive answers to callous cold hearted questions
shining caskets
no one wants
BAM! BAM! BAM! SLAMming lids shut
moments before SHOWTIME!
dying motherfucker dying
counting vacancies
marking places in the long line
thinking and
singing and
writing greedy little forget me nots
can you hear me
can you hear me
can you hear the pennies rattle in my skull
can you hear
The American Dream
email messages
to be memorized [remember?]
accurately [don’t fuck up]
keeping the grist
substituting gristle for feeling
recording itself for posterity
or prosperity
or whatever it may be called
reciting the deeds of men
or the word of God
or whatever it may be called
to the CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! of industry’s tank
or history’s thunder
or whatever it may be called
pounding
loneliness
in like a nail
so hard
it splits
it spits
blood on
The American Dream
shrink-wrapped like
so much souse or
so much headcheese or
so much of whatever it may be called
tattooed
erased
met
and left like
mantras on lips shut tight
so where is your American Dream God now?
sucking up margaritas on some sun soaked
island with undertakers from Oshkosh?
putting down the sound in some shithole stu-
dio with Rastafarians from the Bronx?
Gaming the cold hard imagination of cyber-
space with defrocked trekkies from
Nowheresville?
all ones
all zeroes
all zeroes and ones
all ones and zeroes
all bought
all paid for
all paid off
all gone
gone with
The American Dream
which keeps us running
long after
it ran out of steam
it ran out on us
it ran out of the picture
exit stage left
you dig?
