1979

Nineteen seventy nine…
    talking taken epic art
    take your foot from my collar,
    your hands off my plough
Your armature of gladness
    your courage
          are you listening now?
So, I had looked for a reason
    that was
          more than a feeling
It was 1979, my face
    learned to frown
    that is something you must own

Characterisation attempts to relay
    the essence of trial
    the night time vigil
    a bloodied cudgel
An essay of a borrowed spade
    an ode, a captured smile,
    a long conversation
    with a phone dial’s emery
Like what happened with
    Carmine Galante
          when the pressure was off
    all untouchables become
          touchable and unholy

Khmer Rouge in the news
    the fall of Phnom Penn
          isolation tomorrow enshews
    retreating to the Thai border
          the Pol Pot regime is over
          in Cambodia
Stagnant water smells
    yet the bells tell
          Gerontius is praying well
          at the demise of the Diocese of Cariati

And if I were a happy year
    to borrow moments then laugh it off
A year to remember well
    on the back of a horse called Rubstic
          a slogan horse called Troy
O joy if you were to meet me
    on the other side of the pillow
Where the sun, orange like apricots
    upon the tongue is holy bread
John Paul II off to Poland
    Solidarity brings papal cheer
In the US of A – John Spenkelink no more
    tied to his electric chair
          USA, China – establish
                full diplomatic relations
          with the aid of the United Nations
    China then invades Vietnam
          needs no help at all

Jimmy Carter tries
    to bring the hostages home
          Dukes of Hazzard debut on CBS
              the Happy Meal is born
    In Wigan miners die
These were the days that widows still cried
    your bees run out of hunny
          your hot summer
    Pink Floyd get it in the can
          Phi’rr’ips! the compact disc peepul’
              consign vinyl to ‘the Wall’

1979 – with the tape’s still running
    politicians believing
          you can still win with cunning
Ayatollah Khomeini back in Tehran
    that’s in Iran
          where he is creating a Council
          of the Islamic Revolution
Somali voters approve
    a liberal constitution
          meanwhile back in London
          IRA bombers kill Airet Neave
          then later Louis Mountbatten

In the east or in the west
    babies continue to be born
          brother wants his little sister
    Abba release chiquitita
          its the International Year of the Child
    Nickelodeon arrives

Josef Mengel becomes no more 
    while out swimming
          the death-stroke
    not such bad a way to go
          for an angel of death
          not gasping for breath
    in a gas chamber
Montenegro has a shudder
    earth shares the darkest of human secrets
          that are not secret’s anymore
Heart of Darkness
    Making Movies
    on the red side of a bus
          Josef Conrad’s novella
          in the hands of Ford Copola
  Apocalypse Now, in Me-k-ico
        428 million gallons of crude oil
              spill out in the sea
          and snow falls in the Sahara

Greenland getting autonomy
    from Denmark
          not particularly
          good news for me
    the modern world keeps on turning
          people’s passions
              feelings burning
    Klansmen shoot
          to kill 5 marching workers
          of the communist party
          at a death to the clan rally
          in Greensboro, Carolina
    Gay marchers lead the way
          in Washington, DC
    ‘Guardian Angels’ forming
          crime fighters swarming
          an army of unarmed vigilantes
          in New York City

Across the universe
    Pioneer on a probing mission
          misses Saturn by 13, 000 miles
    where no man has gone before
          in the same year as the groovy
          ‘Startrek the Movie’
    and still the pope has time to travel
    to Mexico and New York Cities
        a tornado hits in Wichita Falls
              and 42 lie dead

This motion of change
    not a year like any other
          not one we can smother
    charter, steal or barter
          with another year of horror
              from another pack of days
          sealed, clean, unused
    waiting for the dealer
          to pick through the wager

1979, you leave me rasping
    careless of any purpose
    candid in my expectations
    waiting like the frog, inept
    who is alive in water boiling
    with no concept of fear
    or alarm or desire to escape                         

                            © edenbraytoday12.05.2021