The man with the woman head
Polynesian wallpaper made the face stand out,
a mixture of Oriental and early vaudeville jazz poofter,
forming a hard, beetle-like triangular chin much like a praying mantis.
Smoky razor-cut, low on the ear neck profile.
The face the color of a nicotine-stained hand.
Dark circles collected under the wrinkled, folded eyes,
map-like from too much turquoise eyepaint.
He showed his old tongue through ill-fitting wooden teeth,
stained from too much opium, chipped from the years.
The feet, brown wrinkles above straw loafers.
A piece of cocoanut in a pink seashell caught the tongue
and knotted into thin white strings.
Charcoal grey Eisenhower jacket zipped and tucked into a lotus green ascot.
A coil of ashes collected on the white-on-yellow dacs.
Four slender bones with rings and nails
endured the weight of a hard fast black rubber cigarette holder.
I could just make out Ace as he carried the tray and mouthed,
“You cheap son of a bitch”
as a straw fell out of a Coke, cartwheeled into the gutter.
So this was a drive-in restaurant in Hollywood,
So this was a drive-in restaurant in Hollywood,
So this was a drive-in restaurant in Hollywood.
(1975)
Originally made available at Justin Sherill’s Home Page Replica.
Nice to see the lyrics printed out like that.
A small correction for your consideration:
“A coil of ashes collected on the white-on-yellow Dacks”
[Dack is a Canadian brand of shoes (now made in England), like Florsheim…I remember them from my childhood…there were also Dack’s Shoe Stores in Toronto, Ontario, Canada where I grew up…it seems that the brand has recently been revived, which you can see on their website]
Yes.
Thank you. Went to four shows of Bongo Fury including front row at Claremont College.
So very cool. Spoken word performance is awesome when done right. Funny thing is, this is as good or better than anything ever done by the likes of Ginsburg or Kerouac.
EFFETE brown wrinkles above straw loafers.
“The feet” makes actual sense though.
* Loden green ascot *
Loden – a thick, heavily fulled, waterproof fabric, used in coats and jackets for cold climates. Also loden green . the deep olive-green color of this fabric.