SLAM!

we weren't brought up to care
about international (or inter-spatial) events
I protested, but the holiday was planned anyway
historically, we were somewhere in the California
redwoods (sequoias that is, Yellowstone
         not-yet-too-gay Frisco
         Hollywood (chewing gum came later)
         tricky memory, the photo album has yellowed)
gosh listen! radio says they put a man on the moon
who's they?
NASA (stupid ignorant adolescent fool)
okay what's it stand for?
         (step-fathers and little sisters don't know beans)
NationalAircraftSocietyAaaah(donno)
         (now who looks ignorant?)
NewtonAppleSocietyAccociates
         what goes up must fall down?
NewAntediluvianSocialAntimatter
         auntie what?
NaughtyAunties'ScrabbleAccociation
         what's Scrabble?
         (we were NOT board game people)
ten miles of car games between the redwoods
         "National" is one, government money
my fourteen-year-old "Aeronautic" found a certain pride
         sure, on the moon, gotta be a "Space" in there
until: " the Administration is telling us that Glenn
no, Neil Armstrong…"(got it: "Administration")
mom, make them shut up, I want to listen
radio scratches, redwood's fault, what's that he said?
the announcer said "one giant leap for Menkind?"
little sister, already feminist, "you mean womenkind"
the idiot family, still uncaring, forever uninterested
already orbiting in their own private outer space
mon dieu, don't they see the wonder in it all?





         moonwalking, 20 july, 1969
         16 may, 2006
         (first Slam! poem)

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