texting
geraldine:september 2007
Holy
Shit I'm back in !s-rael again
played
the ZAPPA club
with
ACIDMOTHERS GONG
last
night & then....
Tonight
I play the same club
with
a different band called
The
University of Errors.
They
are all good jewish punks from SFO.
&
this is a poem
about
the error of my ways
&
the death of nocturnal terrors.
Last
night was the easy gig:
Acid
Mothers Gong.
This
is a gongband unlike all others: we dont do songs
Before
the show
we
never say what we may play
never
plan a thing
come
& go onstage when we feel its right
play
& sing whatever comes
just
respond & let go every day
dont
ask me what it was like
i
never remember anything
God
knows what we played
but
She doesnt wanna talk about the music channels
before
breakfarts anyway.
She
likes to sing.
WELL....
I
Woke
up this mornin......
after
not enough doss &
today
we are on the road to Golgotha where Jesus got nailed
up
on a cross.
Hot
& unholy in the car,
droning
thru a landscape
trashed
by careless industry
nuff
to make an arab weep.
To
hot to go back to sleep
or
grasp this olde unholy mystery.
We
stop for lunch as my phone beep beep beeps at me.
Its
a text from Australia....
from
a terrified Geraldine.
She
says she is dying RIGHT NOW
she
thinks she wont make it
to
the mornin!
She'd
never said this to me before.
I
later learned
t'was
just an early warning
Now
I'm in shock
in
a land that is battered by flak.
I
sit and stare at my cellphone.
The
screen is starting to crack.
I
call for a beer. I stare without seeing. The void stares back.
I
think of Geraldine in her house in Lismore fighting tears.
In
her bandaged bed after midnight living in fear.
Thats
when pure dread rises and grabs the throat
The
smell of my own decay
spins
me like russian roulette.
Suddenly
the awful Israeli beer tastes merely second rate.
I
text her back:
Right
now in Israel heading for Golgotha.
Gonna
light a candle on Jesus's grave for yoo & the ghost of yr mother.
&
then I will smoke a joint beside the wall for Bin Laden & the
Palestinians!
GONNA
SMOKE A SPLIFF
FOR
YOO BABE!
FOR
YOU! YR MUM and St Trinians!
Back
on the road the landscape is hexed.
Sun
on skin with cancer rising.
I
bow to Death and give my respects.
Death
grins knowingly.
Maybe
your next.
Israel
is my happiest hunting ground, he
says.
Mind
how you go mister alien....
My
spine shivers cold as mercury, gold and helium..
We
arrive at Golgotha. I suddenly have my doubts.
Tourists
spreading rapidly like a greedy disease.
Up
the mount we wander
through
a maze of
jesus
merchandise
I
can do without.
Everything
on Gods earth pays the christian's fees.
The
price of capitalism
is
the death of
the
worker bees.
Now
the good jewish boys are california polite.
They
feign mild interest in purchasing bad joke shit with down home yankee
soundbites.
The
merchants are nasty little shits. They know there are profits in
guilt.
Jewish
or Palestinian they all act the same.
They
make me wanna throw up plastic cups & nylon quilts.
I
push my way through them impatient to help Geraldine.
Finally
we get to the site of the cross.
It
smells of pornographic priests & deoderant.
It
smells unclean.
I
find a candle and light it with conscious care.
I
invoke a healthy body for my friend.
I
see the tide of sickness falling back to where
I
see her striding powerfully, purposefully,
into
the light again.
Now
I am still......
The
buzz of tourists fades a bit.
From
nowhere a grumpy lumpen gnome in a black habit grabs at the candle I
have lit.
You
will burn the place down,
he
groans.
He
puffs at it but it stays alight.
I
grab him and pull him away.
You
want me to crucify you!
I
spit.
I
am livid. I'm protecting the health of my friend back home.
I
have the strength of a thousand elephants in these skinny bones.
He
sees I am real. He pauses.
Have
I hallucinated?
He
melts like wax in the crowd while Geraldine remains illuminated.
I
light another candle
as
insurance.
Shine
on Geraldine!
O
Jesus man!
I'm
so sorry for you I could cry!
The
marketeers have mugged you for yr mojo baby!
Is
it for this you died?
A
hard eyed twisted priesthood?
Cash
registers, master cards &
greasy
dripping lips?
I'm
outa here. Did I imagine something PURE
in
this stinkin pit?
I
dream the miracle
in
the hope of a cure.
I
remember my old man used to say:
"The
higher the fewer!"
Down
the endless slope we go, badgered by the
badass
bullshit artists,
sleezebags
on ice,
you
wanta 3D plastic jesus
for
half price?
Quixotically
my mate
who
walks ahead
gets
sucked in by the hard sell
come
on yankee jew boy
buy
now or go to yiddish hell!
YET
if yr an exploding moslem from Kabul
come
in ka-boom box baby you'll do well
a
para dose of paradise
does
wonders for a burning smell.
So
he stops to barter but somethin in me snaps
c'mon
chaps!
I
chunder bluntly
You
dont want this shit!
This
cheapshit tackle! WHY???
Fuck
you!
mutters
snakeface Mr Shekel flickerin beady eyes.
Leave
YR FRIEND alone MEESTER.
No!
sez
I immediately.
NO!
Fuck
you! You merchant SHYSTER!
C'mon
Josh- lets get the
FUCK
outa here. Lets GO!
Hey!
Calm down daevid!
Josh
hopes my
better
self might re-appear
But
I am ON ONE
&
somehow
he
is the last to know...
I'M
CHANNELLING
JESUS
ON THE MOUNT
&
THE MERCHANTS HAVE
GOT
TO GO!
mossad
spy or expoding moslem
I
dont give a damn
purify
the sacred site
wham
bam thank YOU madame.
I
bustle the boys away but the hustler comes again
FUCK
YOU!
he
screams at me
and
pulls a knife or is it a gun?
CALM
DESCENDS UPON ME
NOW
I KNOW MY TIME HAS CUM
AH
GERALDINE!
AH
JESUS!
I
AM READY TO CLEANSE THE MOUNT AGAIN
OF
VILE & SERPENTINE SCUM
THE
VOICE OF OUR LORD DESCENDS UPON ME
A
MIGHTY ROAR BUILDS IN MY HEART
THE
RIGHTEOUS RAGE OF DRUMS
armageddin
in yr face
FUCK
YOOOOOO!
GET
OUT OF HERE YOU SCUM!
my
voice is deafening
&
the good lorde is reborne
the
sales snake falls back stunned..
a
mighty silence stretches
like
a celestial yawn.
Downwards
now we press on;
to
the wall!
I
cry.
NOW
i am on a mission.
Off
to the wailing wall
dont
need no govt permission.
My
israeli friends are white faced
i
didnt know you were like that
says
Udi
BUT
i wink at him & say
thats
what i call the missionary
position
But
that is so dangerous what you did!
this
is a very edgy scene
if
it wasnt the spirit of jesus methinks, then maybe twas
the
spirit of geraldine!
at
last we're at the wall
i
whip out my joint & salute osama
drop
the big one on us now
&
end this whole fucked up
unholy
drama
wipe
out the whole catastrophe
reduce
this place to sand
if
the jews just cant let go of stuff
despite
their indigestion
too
many mothers and children die because of a
slice
of bloodstained land
while
the arabs
ask
terrible questions
osama
bin laden drop the big one
wipe
this shit slate clean
for
world peace.
justice,
and
geraldine!
but
first i sent the promised txt
&
back came her answer like a booomerang ray
the
candles are melting my pain away
&
I'm laughing so hard
the
sun is coming up and
its
a beautiful day today...........
love
you geraldine....
hip
hop hooray!
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