SHRINKING LIBERTY

BOWERY DIME MUSEUM

I've seen a bearded baby here

That never made the news

Unlike the fearless lady

With her daily tattooed shoes

I heard tell there was a politician

Who smiled without a tooth

She was just invented yesterday

So appeals to this year’s youth

There are newborns every minute here

There are punters by the score

Mods obsessed with yesteryear

Are always back for more

Lots of freakish normalcy down at The Bowery Dime Museum

All expositions for a dollar you should come and see ‘em

There are eunuchs’ sons from antiquity

In virgins’ daughters laps

And two faced tv presenting monkeys

Who offer each other claps

Lots of modern freakery down at The Bowery Dime Museum

If you perchance can spare a dollar then you’ll get to see ‘em

Roll up here for the bombardier, armless in his trousers

See the Kaiser’s wax moustache tackled by some Scousers

Underneath the trestle are mice as big as cats

And once inside the armoire they procreate with rats

There are cage free Wall Street tigers

Exclaiming carpe diem

But you'll be safe

They've got the dope down at the Bowery Dime Museum

There’s an elephant painting tables

And a pig that waits your easel

There’s a stoat in a coat

Created by Zeus

And a naked lady weasel

Lots of yadda yadda

Down at the dumdy dum

You should pickle herring

It’s possibly more fun

There’s salad that’s eating models

There’s fags that are smoking butts

There’s sex starved Sheeney on his hole machine

Siphoning his nuts
Paradoxes down on the Bowery
That give only one way to read it
You may be the Earl of Big Fuck Hall
They'll call you a feckin' eegit

Lots of smoke and mirrors

Down at The Bowery Dime Museum

You’re not worth the price of entry

If you can’t even see ‘em

MULTICULTURAL SQUIRRELS OF TOMPKINS SQUARE SHAPED PARK

A crew of dark eyed juncoes

Quarrel in the trees

With ubiquitous old world sparrows

And a banditry of chickadees

Call to their sweeties

Beneath a boil 
Of hawks
Yet we do not care

For the air

Under foot
And we get on with anyone

Anytime

Until dusk

WANDERING POET - RIHAKU

DRINKING ALONE BY MOONLIGHT

by Li Bo

花間一壺酒。   A cup of wine, under the flowering trees;

獨酌無相親。   I drink alone, for no friend is near.

舉杯邀明月。   Raising my cup I beckon the bright moon,

對影成三人。   For he, with my shadow, will make three men.

月既不解飲。   The moon, alas, is no drinker of wine;

影徒隨我身。   Listless, my shadow creeps about at my side.

暫伴月將影。   Yet with the moon as friend and the shadow as slave

行樂須及春。   I must make merry before the Spring is spent.

我歌月徘徊。   To the songs I sing the moon flickers her beams;

我舞影零亂。   In the dance I weave my shadow tangles and breaks.

醒時同交歡。   While we were sober, three shared the fun;

醉後各分散。   Now we are drunk, each goes his way.

永結無情遊。   May we long share our odd, inanimate feast,

相期邈雲漢。   And meet at last on the Cloudy River of the sky.

translated by Arthur Waley