Robert Lowell



Memories of Milk and Moscone
—for Robert Lowell

These are the—tranquillized dayz
The Obama-Stock Market Crash Era
Ought I to regret—my Act Up ways?
I was a fire-breathing—gay faggot
Marching in manic—Broadway parades
Telling off Reagan, Bush—the CDC
Falling in love—with a cute Negro kid
With curlicues of weed—in his hair

Now all I do—is book-worm the day
My silk kimono—with puce gardenias
I have a condo—on Capitol Hill
While drug-addicts—scavenge
Volunteer Park—for used needles
And young Republican Fundamentalist
Religious freaks—get together for
Prayers underneath—the Rubber Tree

The gay bookstores—cafes, boutiques
All gone now—absorbed mainstreamed
Into the metaphysics—of str8t love
Assimilated marriage—death & taxes
Group Death—jaundiced hepatitis
Sunsets—slanting over Lake Union
Why do I feel—like lobotomized Ethel
Rosenberg—waiting for the chair?



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