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From: waltt@tekecs.UUCP (Walt Tucker)
Newsgroups: net.bizarre
Subject: Re: Poem
Message-ID: <5608@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 16-Aug-85 19:11:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekecs.5608
Posted: Fri Aug 16 19:11:50 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Aug-85 21:31:55 EDT
References: <9866@ucbvax.ARPA>
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 41

> 
> 	
> 	Invocation to the Cockroach God
> 
> O ancient immortal cockroach god
> who swaggered untouched
> from the white blaze of Hiroshima,
> sneered and shrugged
> at such higher depths of progress
> and then bummed a jaunty cigarette,
> defend your people.
> At the back of back alleys
> and the close of closing in rooms
> we've spilled beer and blood to you
> and there's never enough of either.
> The tidy torture is upon us,
> be with us now, you who are born
> miraculously in penthouses and slums,
> you from whom there's no escape.
> We are as hated as you, make us as strong.
> A cop should be no more to us
> than the expensive man who sprays you
> and scares off the people
> for three days while you dance.
> Teach us your dances so jails will fall down
> and merchants will stop trying
> to pull us from their stoops
> like crabgrass growing in cement.
> We invoke the cockroach god,
> the immortal enemy of everyone
> the untouchable that touches everyone,
> the laughter scurrying among ruins
>     like us.
>     Like us.
> 			-- author unknown

I really don't know who this is, but the style seems to mimic Sylvia Plath
(post-wwII poet through late 40's and 50's until she gassed herself)

                         -- Walt Tucker