As Is What Was is a collection of poems created with no thought at all. None. There is no control over grammar, sound, rhythm, idea, or anything really. Why? I thought it would be fun. Is it insane? Absolutely.
100 in Siberia
Damn it if Dylan weren’t right
But you’d rather rave about the sixties
Like some late soixante-huitard partygoer
You were never there in the first place
Yet you know so much about the greatest poet of the college dorms
You know so much don’t you
Vintage education
Have you seen the way the vinyls spin
It caves your head in
Bake it all up and go rocket
Somebody said the hill was too steep
So the other decided to roll down it laughing
Into the electric fence at the bottom
Youthful vindication
That’s the spirit the stuff the swag
The kind of thing that makes your neck hairs stiffen
Sing it to the stars and have a blast
Are you really living
If you haven’t seen a dude get sucked off outside a building facing the highway
Nope. No that sort of stuff is for the freshman
What’s in naïveté but a good old who cares and an illegal bottle
This is the class to change it all
You ain’t going nowhere kid
You can sit there your flannel and spout about the majesties of progressive thinking
But you just know the words
You don’t know where it comes from
You like how it sounds
Not how it works
Give me a break I was one of you too
You can scream at the devil’s advocate all you want
There’s a reason he’s on that side of the court
This isn’t new
None of it is
100 in Siberia
And you want to flip things over
The new leaf the new agenda the pores are open
Let the system breathe
How do you think its lungs have been working in the first place?
You like the flip sure
But only if the other side is face down
Surprise surprise that’s how the other side likes it too
They know it’s easy to rile you up
Because anger is easy as pie
Give ‘em a slice
Interrogate the devil in whispers and maybe more silence
Then pounce
But no you’re not god’s own
Don’t get it twisted
Let them fall in line at the table
Don’t chase em away from it
They’ll bring order to another one
You did it last time
And again before that
Yet you’re still stubborn enough to think you own the grown ups table
It’s 100 in Siberia
But you’ve been sweating since 64