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Hot Water Muzak

no hot water in the apartment complex
both the water heaters blew up
so for 3 weeks each morning
I've been heating H2O in a pot
too small for a good sponge bath
really, shit, so it takes 4 potfuls
to wash my face for a bad shave
but it's no good, later I chug Blatz
& lapse into the peripheral borders
where dream intersects cold reality --
even when at my door one Saturday
I'm interviewed by the T.V. newsman
(Warner Hatson, a spiffy black dude,
hypersmart, wearing his luxury suit)
holding that mike under my nose
while his cam-man gets it all
as I stand shoeless, balls-itching,
patchily-bearded from bad shaving,
my spoken words verbal spoutings
assaulting the inner language fabric
you'd like to rip to shreds as
Hatson does his journalistic thing
knowing the greed of corrupt power
lusts have screwed us again,
& one more cold shower to take