Amnesiac Thirst For Fame
An “autograph hound” armed
with a golden platter and a
gun kneeled before John and
killed the Beatles.
A stringy-haired artist
tiptoed thru St. Peter’s
and unsculpted
Michelangelo’s
polished marble elbow with a
hammer,
Christ defenseless lying in his
stone Mama’s arms
Staring out of the canvas
under their Feathered Hats
Rembrandt’s Night Watchers
were blind to the Slasher
that tore thru their coats with
a razor.
Did someone steal Mona
Lisa’s smile forever from
the Louvre?
Originally published in Rolling Stone magazine, January, 1981, though written a month before, around the time of John Lennon‘s assassination, December 8, 1980, “Amnesiac Thirst For Fame” is one of the one-hundred-and-three poems now made available in Wait Till I’m Dead – UnCollected Poems by Allen Ginsberg published by Grove-Atlantic.