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 soon to be made available in Wait Till I'm Dead - UnCollected Poems by Allen Ginsberg to be published by Grove-Atlantic. Two further short earlier poems are available here