Billy Little

Billy Little lives on Hornby Island, about four hours, including two ferries from Victoria, BC. Born NYC 1943, US Army(E-5)60-63, SUNYAB 1967-1970, student of Creeley, Duncan, Barth, Fiedler, Clarke, Canada 1974, editor, Presence, Tens, Press of the Black Flag Raised, RAW, publisher, Black Owle Press, Prose and Verses Press, My Dukes broadsides, Dojo books. ‘please don't use spellcheck on my work, as Will Rogers said, "never trust a man who only knows how to spell a word one way."’ He can be reached at poemz@mars.ark.com.

THE KINGDOM OF PANIC

every breath of King Panic

is a giggle

his faLSETTO laughter deafens

his jokes

plague the polite

the agreeable

he's so funny

we're afraid we'll choke chortling

our paper legs

will get wet

and soggy

microbes will thrive

to our ultimate dis-ease

the Duchy of Panic

is a chemical soup

we're worried

we can't afford

to know the contents

how many toxic mililitres

float the future

doom

panic cakes for breakfast

panic aches and sore sages

panic aches pour blood

in each successive cereal bowl

someone will kill us

if we udder a truth

we might as well cheat

Phobos will catch us all

Princess Panic hears

she's got gigantic ears

hears every phoneme

transmits your weaknesses

broadcasts your fears

every black black cormorant

every twittering nuthatch

knows all about you

they've got an eye on you

on all your feathers

every mote of smut

they've heard it all

they'll never tell you nothing

you lack the need to know

no wonder you worry

the leper cons

stole the children

left changelings

in their cribs

we'll never feed them

they won't stop hungering

no volume control

on the shrieking

in the groceteria

you're not eating

all your minimum daily

preservatives

hundreds of tiny shriekers

at the ice cream freezer

thousands of starving babes

howl from the solar bar b q

no meat on their bones

eyeballs glazed with larva

maggot hatching telecasts

eat our brain no cure for tv

Prince Panic can't go

fast enough

he'll never get there

lickety split he's gone

and missed it again

hasn't he always

mist out on kisses

no cure for the gas pedal

panic cake panic ache

fakers man

fake me a snake

that swallows your tan

nobody talks

nobody wants an appointment

with the Secretary of Panic

they don't fax

they don't call

they don't whisper

in the hall

they're all taking courses

through their modem

Basic Pill

Advanced Conversational Pill

Pills With Windows

The Prescription of the Month

Club

doesn't send you time

doesn't give you life

doesn't hand you home and garden

or health

millions line up

join Anomie Unanimous

I'M GOING STEADY WITH MY DRUGGIST

tops the pop charts

everybody's scalping tickets

out front of the stadium

the sold out workshop's

going to help everybody

Find Your Roots

In The Medicine Cabinet

entire libraries are replaced

by Beakers of Solutions

The President

hires a full time pharmacist

wash your hands

you'll catch it

you'll pass it to your kids

phenobarbitol leaking

into mother's milk

which burger has the valium

they all have tetracycline

panic aches panic aches

garbage can

piled full of hypodermics

contagion filled condoms

attics full of opium

basements full of cash

sperm in the freezer

blood in the bank

one minute you're cured

the next you're driving

the tank

your neighbour's bombed

and so are you

finish them off

and swallow a blue

don't take a yellow

if you're feeling mellow

face against the screen

ingest a tiny green

arise from the dead

pop three or four red

sick of geting better yet

how nice people treat you

when you're sick

everyone else is sick

don't get left out

buy our purple pill

why should you be deprived

feel as sick as you like

pay now and grimace tomorrow

save on food

take your dosage

in your lunch box

fogive me for injecting

this lukewarm sobriety

let's hope it's not contagious

no Canadian known's

found a cure for the poem

Billy Little