Childcity, Aprilcity – Gregory Corso

Baby City, April City,
angel spirits hiding in the gates,
poets, parasites in their hair, beautiful Baudelaire,
Artaud, Rimbaud, Apollinaire,
contemplate the night city –
Whistleblowers and goalkeepers,
Penalty of Montparnasse, mortal Notre Dame,
contemplate the night circle, the inherited dome,
Hugo and Zola buried together,
harleccino’s death trap,
the Seine breeds filthy sludge,
The Eiffel looks from above – it sees the Apocalyptic scorching with ants.
nyc city ,
Town of dead and buried Germans.
Mamma Guerra’s doll house.

Gregory Corso with Jocelyn Rothschild – Chez Rothschild sur Ile St. Louis

A poet ugly as sin with a dark view of the City of Light, although anyone who has lived there long enough to identify a friend at the morgue by the Seine is no longer fooled by the lights.

Le Quai de Le Rapee. The black hearses of the State driving the departed from the Bastille to the cemetery de Pere Lachaise.

ps. the opening line of another version is recorded as ‘Childcity, Aprilcity’.

pps My search for Jocelyn Rothschild came up goose-eggs.

ppps The only found meaning for Harlecinno as the Itlaian word arlecinno, an amusing servant in theater

I found this poem thanks to Eric Mitchell, Pittsfield Capitalist and B-Movie legend.


Gun freedom stems from the need to repress the freedom of the others. – James Steele – unrepentant counterfeiter

Newspapers Versus TVs and Cellphones

TV and cellphones will never replace a newspaper. You can’t swat a fly with a newspaper. – Pascha Ray – Traveler

It’s Da Shoes

As a doorman in New York, London, Paris, Hamburg, le Sud de France, and Beverly Hills from the 1970s I to the 1990s the bosses always asked about my criteria for admission. Many other doormen said, “Shoes.”

Me, it was a look.

A look like you wanted a good time without any trouble, although I never gave entry to undercover cops. Their shoes were dead giveaways. Cop shoes. Of course if they were off-duty, then they were fine, but I always warned them, “Don’t pull any cop shit inside or else I’ll never let you in.”

And they didn’t, although a few clients scootered out the back door. They knew trouble when they saw it and I checked on the 12.

One, an undercover cop from the 76th Precinct in Red Hook, Rob Cea, explained, “People get nervous when they see us ”

“It’s the shoes. Change ’em next time. And next time come alone.

Damned, Rob Cea did, and no one left the club, when he came in after that.

Ari my cobbler. I’m his Shabbas Goy.

Pawh Den Always

Monsoons late.
Months after Songkran.
Buffalo wander the rice paddies.
Looking for their old friend.
Den Khongbua
Grandfather gone.
Kwai remember him.
Den the only one
Who knew their names.
Den Gone
But not from memory Kwai.
Not gone forever.
Not from our memories too.
I see you soon, grandfather Den But not today.