FOR WHEN I HEAR YOUR NAME

FOR WHEN I HEAR YOUR NAME ON THE NATIONAL

your home-town crowd

and teen-year chums

have killed six cops

so far

twenty-nine young men sat in your sixth grade class

none graduated

except to greater tears:

seven slit their wrists

five were shot by cops

four met accidents

a dozen are behind bars;

there’s only you responsible

for revenge

against the corrupt council

outsider social workers

the prevalence of incest

holy words from rome

and near-free dope

which made it tough for moncton’s class of ‘59

and you can taste the blood flowed

flowing

to flow

a flood

for you:

the Host...

perhaps, Paul, you’ll change your mind?

there’s been an Election

(they’ll do better now)...

Yesterday you took your gun and vanished.

Copyright © 1975, K’lakokum