---

 

enjoy this writing from Janet Kuypers in the cc&d free 2012 PDF file chapbook: Janet with HA! of a short story & poems from the live show with Francoi le Roux (the HA!Man of South Africa) 10/3/12 from Chicago (with music and video). Click the title or the cover to download the free PDF file chapbook.

Order this writing in the book Cheap Thrills cc&d 2012 collection book		get the 228 page Sept. - Dec. 2012 cc&d magazine issue collection 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:

Order this writing in the 318 page collection book Post-Apocalyptic of some of Janet Kuypers᾿poetry about death Order this 6" x 9" ISBN# book today:

Order this writing in the poetry book Burn Through Me of Janet Kuypers᾿ writings that were set to music by the HA!Man of South Africa (with many poems released on the Burn Through Me CD set Order this 6" x 9" ISBN# book today:

Order this writing in the poetry book by Janet Kuypers: Part of my Pain Order this 6" x 9" ISBN# book today:

enjoy this writing from Janet Kuypers by clicking the title or the cover from the cc&d free 2017 PDF file chapbook: Lengthy World Poems on World Poetry Day of longer poems about different parts of the world for World Poetry Day, as a feature 3/21/17 in Austin Texas, at Half Price Books

Order this Janet Kuypers writing in the one-of-a-kind volume “Chapter 48 (v2)” Order this one-of-a-kind volume of performance art poetry shows from 2011-2018 from Janet Kuypers as a 6"x9" perfect-bound paperback ISBN# book from Amazon throughout the U.S., the U.K. and all of Europe today!

This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “Bridge” Down in the Dirt, v196 (the 6/22 Issue) Order the paperback book:

Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology The Final Frontier the Down in the Dirt May-August 2022 issues collection book		get the 420 page May-August 2022 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

Enough’s Enough

Janet Kuypers
for the 10/3/12 show with the HA!man of South Africa
6/17/12

(but sometimes speaking is the problem...)

Once when I was in Bad Gastein,
      where the Alps in Austria
      gave every street in town
      a sixty-degree incline,
I signed up for a bus tour
to go to the radon cave
at a nearby mining mountain.

Waiting outside for the bus,
I stood with something like seventeen
German-speaking Austrians.
There I felt so out of my element
that I was almost dying
for an American voice saying any words.

That’s when I then heard
a boisterous baritone,
so I made my way
to the booming,
distinctly American voice.
I merely asked,
“American?”
The large man heard my inflection
and immediately spoke.
“Hi, I’m Frank,
and the little missus here is Mildred,”
and this petite, subservient Midwestern woman,
standing with this almost circular melodramatic man,
made this couple look
like the perfect ten...
Frank asked where I was from,
and when I said Chicago
he sprung up to start on his speech,
schlepping his speil:
“We’re from Detroit.
I Worked for GM for 35 years,
and now that the kids are gone,
with my pension
I thought I’d take the little missus here to see the Alps...”

And that’s when I realized
that I could have stood
at fifty paces
and still heard Frank
telling the entire neighborhood
the epic of his life.

That’s when it occurred to me
how loud us Americans could be.

Because when first traveling through Europe
after the “war on terror” began,
the United States governemnt and airlines
wanted to inform Americans traveling abroad
that if they were concerned
about being a conspicuous target
by looking too American,
they offered these simple guidelines
to help some Americans feel safe.
Don’t wear a University sweatshirt.
Don’t wear a sports team baseball cap.
Don’t chew gum.
Don’t yell.
      And I could imagine Frank now,
      yelling, “Mildred!”

So I made a point
to not sit near Frank and Mildred
on that bus,
but that was okay:
I could still hear them
from rows away
as we made our way
to the mountain range.

And to the Austrians on that tour
who spoke English,
a part of me wanted to tell them,
“Not all Americans are that loud,”
because even if us Americans
want to rest on our laurels,
some of us know
when enough’s enough.

Copyright of written pieces remain with the author, who has allowed it to be shown through Scars Publications and Design.Web site © Scars Publications and Design. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission from the author.

Problems with this page? Then deal with it...