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From: tag@ucbvax.ARPA (Todd Gross)
Newsgroups: net.bizarre
Subject: Poem
Message-ID: <9866@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 13-Aug-85 02:27:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.9866
Posted: Tue Aug 13 02:27:56 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 15-Aug-85 08:19:09 EDT
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 35


	
	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