A poem I wrote in 1963 upon the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was included in the latest edition (Issue 13) of Eleven Eleven, the always artful journal of California College of the Arts. Here’s a portion of it:
Kaleidoscope Of An Assassination In Black And White
For John F. Kennedy
The First Day
Memory is like a motion picture
He is waving
The President is waving
from the back seat of a car
when lead coughs
and his head explodes
Shattering stills of black and white
leap from the TV eye
The crazy jiggle of a camera
a patchwork quilt of day and night
a siren scream
and child’s cry
puffs of exhaust
tire skids at an emergency ward
on a dead-end drive
and a frocked priest
mumbling the last rites
and making the sign of the cross
with an oily thumb
over his dead head
under a sheet
on a gurney
The President is dead!
Killed by a dum-dum shot!
The President is dead!
Blood streaks the legs of his lady
stiffens her skirt
She takes off her wedding band
and puts it in his hand
leaves her bouquet of roses
on the back seat
The camera jiggles
nightmare in black and white
Black girl
White girl
Mother
Man
with spittle on his lips
and a half-eaten chicken
and a bottle of coke
on a box of books
and four brass casings
below the sill
of an open window
of a warehouse
and a bouquet of roses
on a back seat
The President is dead!
The Pioneer of the New Frontier
in the tailored two-button suit
boy’s pompadour and back brace
photographic brain and Boston A
age in his heavy lids
his blue eyes
is dead!
And there’s a bouquet of roses on a back seat
Link to the site: http://www.elevenelevenjournal.com/