MANSON
So Charles Manson just died. Here's an old free verse poem from our files inspired by his sordid tale:
MAL HOMBRE
I am mal hombre
I am the bad man
I am everything
I am nothing
I am the Devil
As much as I am God
And I am God
Son of a streetchild
Thrust from the womb
Of a runaway little girl
She stole for her boy Charlie
Did time in West Virginia
The only thing mother
Ever taught him
Is that everyone lies
Once Charlie punched her out cold
Father died on the battlefield
For his rights
Grandma was a mountain girl
Up there in Kentucky
She never didn’t smoke or cuss
Or lie
The boy went to her church
And swept the floor
Ain’t wise to too many things
But I am wise to one thing
And no
Ain’t gonna tell you
The reformers lay Charlie down
And beat him with leather straps
So he set the school on fire
Got a little girl named Rose
Took some guns
Crossed the country
On a straw hat full of stolen dimes
Turned twenty-one in the LA county jail
Weren't not but a hot second
Been in jail all his life
A bad forty-three dollar check
Got him ten years
Creepy taught him to strum strings
Behind them bars
There's a certain amount of truth in that house
And Charlie took on his share of it
He begged to stay
But they let him loose
Into the streets of ‘Frisco
Haight-Ashbury
Charlie was offered a pill
By a ten year-old kid
This is good
Said the boy
It’ll make the colors go
The world was happening
The children wanted peace on earth
Charlie threw his gun
Off of that bridge
Never goin’ back again
Never break the law again
There’s no slack in my act
You go down to St Louis
And you get off the bus
And you’re broke
You get on the phone and call moms
I don’t
I go to the alley
And get a tire iron
All the lost gathered
For no one else spoke such truth
Charlie found him
A new Family
Chosen ones
Flowers in their hair
Blood in their hearts
We had us some cosmic gatherins’
Back on the mountain
Would shake the eardrums
Of a Mormon tabernacle
I face life or death every day
Like dust on the shoulder
Shot a man
Cause Tex was a coward
He owed me one
Gotta fix your life and your death
Tired of carryin’ you
On my back
Suzie, remember them three dudes
I fought off for you
Remember that dude
Whose ears I cut off for you
Pay that to Tex
That thing you owe
They made their home
In the Valley of Death
Lived on an old movie ranch
Took on the lives
Of cowboys and gypsies and pirates
Bunch of kids playin’
Playin’ at livin’
I’d be Riff-Raff Rackus
Steve would be John Jones just come in from Minneapolis drivin’ a truck
And then we’d lose track of who we were
Went off to other different dimensions
Levels of thought and understandin’ and comprehension
Beyond most peoples’ minds
(functions)
(computers)
(data)
Far out trips
Charlie the charlatan
Acid-shaman guide
A show of crucifixion
Deceit in the desert
Trickster programming
Sleight of hand
You haven't gotten rid of it
I can still see your mother on you
You ain’t dead yet
I would die for you
Would you die for me?
The blacks swore to make Vietnam
Look like a holiday
Took their rage and fire to the streets
The illusionist fell victim
To his own chicanery
Feared those black panthers
Of the night
When I stand on a mountain
And I say do it
It gets done
Or else I do it
And that’s the last thing
In the world
You want
Me to do
Ego is a too much thing
Charlie said
The prophet peered through
His third eye swastika
Made helter-skelter prophecies
Of black and white
And red
Blood on the walls
In Bel air
Awful and orgasmic
Madness its fuel
She begged
For two weeks
Long enough
To bear her child
Two weeks
And then they could murder her
But their mouths promised
No mercy
She ate at her favorite restaurant
That night
And the killers
Drank of her blood
They made ink of it
Wrote declarations of war
(pigs)
(rise)
(death to pigs)
A star fell from the sky
And became lost in the haze
Between heaven and cold sea
They buried her
With her unborn child
In her arms
When you’re in war
War is war, mister
Ain’t no murder
In a holy war
Don’t make no change
Without bloodshed
Charlie went home again
Mindgames in the jailhouse
Holding the trust of California
In his stomach
Spiritually allied
With the things of the desert
The scorpion and the wolf
He needs no one to protect him
Walks on his own two feet
You spit on him
You got a spit comin’
Sits in his cell
Twenty four hours a day
Doin’ his numbers
Doin’ his time
No books
His thoughts more interesting
Than anything he could read
They won’t give Charlie
No guitar to play
He listens to the radio
Whenever he has one
Reads his mail
Makes little things out of string
Scorpions and other things
Sends ‘em everywhere
Wherever they’ll fit
We’re all our own prisons
We’re each our own Wardens
And we do our own times
Anywhere you go
You’re always there
A man came to me
And said I’m damn glad
You ain’t Jesus
I said why not
He said cause I am
I went to the end of it
And then the old man
Would be ready to die
And he’d say
Well, son, uh
Sincerity is the best gimmick
Remember that
That’ll win it
Sincerity and honesty
It’ll trick ‘em every time
Never tried that
Tried everything else
Maybe I been sinful
Maybe I’m wrong
Gonna change it
Start all over
Go to God
And God said
What you need me for
Go forgive yourself
I get stuck in the game
Of playin’ a goat
Or a teddy bear
What is the real one
Where is the real one?
I don’t know where he is
Some nut ward somewhere
Monster?
What you see is what you get
Psychopath?
Whole lot of us out there these days
I ain’t pushin’ no blocks around
Take it to the Queen of England
Sendin’ her kids over here
Duckin’ that Hindu pimp
Comin’ out of that New Delhi penitentiary
Better bow down
Gonna take your heart away
It’s beyond good and evil
It’s a balance
It’s the pope roller-skatin’
Kids runnin’ numbers
Under the table
Got the dice in their hands
You’re not takin’ care of the kids
You’re feedin’ on ‘em
You’re drunk on their blood, man
Everyone’s playin’ a different game
Playin’ boats and planes and trains
And rabbits and ducks
And swings and hearts and little girls
And everything you could think of
When we started the rainbow
I am your young people
When you look at me
You judge yourself
I’m intertwined
With your very soul
Garden of the mind
Everything is love
There’s nothin’ that isn’t
Even confusion is love
It is a word that we use
To supplement for God
Or intelligence
I am loved
I am love
All the way
I’m around the world with it
Ain’t you seen it?
Ten, fifteen times?
Takin’ up the slack for you assholes
Carryin you around, Nixon
I still got you
Hey, Reagan there, Ronnie
Old cryin’ partner
I didn’t tell them that was your gun
Came out of that trailer
Got a kid somewhere
Think about him
‘Bout as much as my daddy
Ever thought about me
Got to catch it on your own, boy
Train’s hard
Road’s rough
All I ever knew
All anybody ever told me
Dyin’ gets me nervous
Livin’ scares me
Dyin’ is easy
People hang themselves on the ventilator
Next to my cell every day
Thoughts I’m carryin is heavy
Knew I wasn’t goin’ to the chamber
Preacher on one side of me
Preacher on the other side of me
Cause I didn’t do anythin’ wrong
Maybe I can learn to be a welder or somethin’
At least till I get to that front gate anyway
It all ended tomorrow
You got a circle
That a man lives inside of
He is responsible
For that circle
And that circle only
You can take that
To the House of the Rising Sun
In Japan with the samurai
You can take that
To the Second World War
You can take it
And hang it on a cross
You can kill me a thousand times
But the circle is still there
You don’t stay out of my circle
You’re fuckin’ with your own life
It’s not mine
If I could get out of here
If they ever set me free
I’d go to the grass out front
And just sit down for a while