Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GONE AWAY BLUES, by THOMAS MCGRATH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GONE AWAY BLUES, by         Recitation by Author             Poet's Biography
First Line: Sirs, when you are in your last extremity
Last Line: By-by, by-by, by-by
Subject(s): Farewell; Parting


Sirs, when you are in your last extremity,
When your admirals are drowning in the grass-green sea,
When your generals are preparing the total catastrophe --
I just want you to know how you can not count on me.

I have ridden to hounds through my ancestral halls,
I have picked the eternal crocus on the ultimate hill,
I have fallen through the window of the highest room,
But don't ask me to help you 'cause I never will.

Sirs, when you move that map-pin how many souls must dance?
I don't think all those soldiers have died by happenstance.
The inscrutable look on your scrutable face I can read at a glance --
And I'm cutting out of here at the first chance.

I have been wounded climbing the second stair,
I have crossed the ocean in the hull of a live wire,
I have eaten the asphodel of the dark side of the moon,
But you can call me all day and I just won't hear.

O patriotic mister with your big ear to the ground,
Sweet old curly scientist wiring the birds for sound,
O lady with the Steuben glass heart and your heels so rich and round --
I'll send you a picture postcard from somewhere I can't be found.

I have discovered the grammar of the Public Good,
I have invented a language that can be understood,
I have found the map of where the body is hid,
And I won't be caught dead in your neighborhood.

O hygienic inventor of the bomb that's so clean,
O lily white Senator from East Turnip Green,
O celestial mechanic of the money machine --
I'm going someplace where nobody makes your scene.

Good-by, good-by, good-by,
Adios, au 'voir, so long,
Sayonara, dosvedanya, ciao,
By-by, by-by, by-by.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org




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