A. S. Bliokh
Merchant Marine is just like the Navy
With the German torpedo-bombers and Japanese strafing
Only with fewer guns.
You wrote many books; now all forgotten,
And flew dingy airplanes all over waters
Of your drug-infused imagination
What has become of you?
I am not anti-capitalist, not an anarchist,
I not a pacifist; not that I like war.
I am structured and straight; not a gay
Like a many of you.
Your greatness is now more visible than before
I met Ferlinghetti in Prague being too proud
To introduce myself.
You got through war; I got through shame.
So I guess we are even now.
With you, now lying in state
Of your dusty bookshelves; vermillion
Was the color of your youth now gone
Forever.
Yet the curses and hurrahs
Join in Heaven.
