boom boom
baby
boom boom
SDS yes yes baby
boom boom
it was 1972
the Republican Convention
was also visiting
my grandparents
we were three kids
on vacation
waiting for mom and dad
watching the humidity
rise off Collins Avenue
in front of our motel room
on motel row
a bus stopped at the light
some screaming SDS boys
peeled off the panel from
the bus back baring the engine
fuel poured from twisted metal
feeding Miami gutters
blue jeaned Students
for a Democratic Society
young yippie rads
ran for the beach
while Nixon ran for office
vets against the war helped
septa- octa- nonagenarians
get off the bus
then tear gas
I remember tear gas
running for water
and wet washcloths
to soothe the sting
of the tear gas
the tear gas I didn't ever
see on the news that night
boom boom
baby
boom boom
Bush Quayle baby
boom boom
so what's new?
20 years later
yippies are yuppies
I get 2 newspapers a day
I get network news
cable news network
news radio
talk radio
news magazines
Newsweek
Time
Newsday
New York Times
but nothing is new
in the news
a bunch of moonfaced men
with tight ties
and thin lips
running for office
making pronouncements
extolling past tents
nothing new about that
in May women wore
suffragette white
to march in Washington
for rights
someone who looked a
little like Margaret
Sanger defended clinics
from bearded zealots
nothing new about that
boom boom
baby
boom boom
post war baby
boom boom
so what's new?
a new world order
is in the news
and Sarajevo
Sarajevo?
Sarajevo!
a familiar ring to it
some Olympic civil (civil?)
war with cleansing camps
Unified Europe.
Unified Europe?
Unified Europe!
didn't Adolph have the same idea?
EEC and USSR are both acronyms
both economic unions
of socialist systems
nothing changes
so the earth says
erase it start over
hurricanes in Florida
rerun tomorrow in Kauai
ho humdrum
earthquakes in Mexico
tell it to San Francisco
tell it to the Aztecas
volcanos in the Philippines
again? that was
last year's news
tell it to Etna
tell it to Kilauea
tidal waves
floods
monsoons
droughts
nothing new in new moons
boom boom
baby
boom boom
eat eat baby
boom boom
so, what's new?
my grandmother was feeding me saying
the children in Europe are starving
and it was true in Warsaw
and it was true in Vilna
and it was true in
Ireland
India
Bangladesh
Pakistan
Ethiopia
Sudan
Somalia
Appalachia
Philadelphia
Kurdistan
a gulf war to destroy a democracy
and save the monarchy
storm the Bastille?
never happened
fight for Spain?
never happened
Tianamen Square?
never happened
George Orwell and Aldous Huxley
not novelists but
howling hysterical
historians
eager journalists are
jotting down
what was already written
what I already read
nothing new in this story
boom boom
baby
boom boom
tie dyed baby
boom boom
what's new in new age?
crystals
pyramids
druids
dolphins
pagans
palms
Tarot
witches
Ouija
gods
goddesses
miracles
magic
Nostradamus
no news
not even a mythology
with an original anthology
12 steps to a stereotypical
paradigm
stores sell threadbare jeans
brand new and brands
paisley and plaid
and didn't I just hear
Jim Morrison Jimi Hendrix
and John Lennon?
I was here before
when I dyed it myself
I was here before
in the age of Aquarius
I was here when
what's your sign
was a new line
and amethyst was
my birthstone
nothing new in ages
boom boom
baby
boom boom
crying baby
boom boom
what's news
what's the scoop
who's news
who's blues
new shoes
is news when you need shoes
news in my house
is the same story
Shana counts to four
that's news for 2
Bryce rides a trike backwards
that's news for 4
Laura got red glasses
that's news for 6
I am not hungry tonight
I still have a place to work
a place to sleep
people to love
who love me
even when we are hungry
we are family
we are community
we are angry
we carry damp rags
in the streets
on the beaches
we cry
we listen
we cry out
that's the news
everything else is
editorial cartoon
baby boom
cartoon
boom boom
baby
boom boom