Nagasaki Days

by Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg
I -- A Pleasant Afternoon for Michael Brownstein and Dick Gallup One day 3 poets and 60 ears sat under a green-striped Chau- tauqua tent in Aurora listening to Black spirituals, tapping their feet, appreciating words singing by in mountain winds on a pleasant sunny day of rest -- the wild wind blew thru blue Heavens filled with fluffy clouds stretched from Central City to Rocky Flats, Plutonium sizzled in its secret bed, hot dogs sizzled in the Lion's Club lunchwagon microwave mouth, orangeade bubbled over in waxen cups Traffic moved along Colefax, meditators silent in the Diamond Castle shrine-room at Boulder followed the breath going out of their nostrils, Nobody could remember anything, spirits flew out of mouths & noses, out of the sky, across Colorado plains & the tent flapped happily open spacious & didn't fall down. June 18, 1978 II -- Peace Protest Cumulus clouds float across blue sky over the white-walled Rockwell Corporation factory -- am I going to stop that? * Rocky Mountains rising behind us Denver shining in morning light -- Led away from the crowd by police and photographers * Middleaged Ginsberg and Ellsberg taken down the road to the greyhaired Sheriff's van -- But what about Einstein? What about Einstein? Hey, Einstein Come back! III -- Golden Courthouse Waiting for the Judge, breathing silent Prisoners, witnesses, Police -- the stenographer yawns into her palms. August 9, 1978 IV -- Everybody's Fantasy I walked outside & the bomb'd dropped lots of plutonium all over the Lower East Side There weren't any buildings left just iron skeletons groceries burned, potholes open to stinking sewer waters There were people starving and crawling across the desert the Martian UFOs with blue Light destroyer rays passed over and dried up all the waters Charred Amazon palmtrees for hundreds of miles on both sides of the river August 10, 1978 V -- Waiting Room at the Rocky Flats Plutonium Plant "Give us the weapons we need to protect ourselves!" the bareheaded guard lifts his flyswatter above the desk -- whap! * A green-letter'd shield on the pressboard wall! "Life is fragile. Handle with care" -- My Goodness! here's where they make the nuclear bomb triggers. August 17, 1978 VI -- Numbers in Red Notebook 2,000,000 killed in Vietnam 13,000,000 refugees in Indochina 1972 200,000,000 years for the Galaxy to revolve on its core 24,000 the Babylonian Great Year 24,000 half life of plutonium 2,000 the most I ever got for a poetry reading 80,000 dolphins killed in the dragnet 4,000,000,000 years earth been born Summer 1978





Last updated August 31, 2015