Megan Hanson

Ginsberg, Censored

I.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by _. Asterisk. Insert footnote: Capitalism. Crude oil. Carbon footprint. Apple computers. Cellular towers. (Il)legal prescriptions. (Un)American Dreams. Government bailouts. Insurance fraud. Fraud, in general.

starving, hysterical, naked, dragging themselves through the _ streets at dawn. Erasure. Edit. Censorship: Youthful streets. Yuppie streets. Criminal streets. Bankrupt streets. Privately-owned streets. Gentrified streets. Spoiled streets. Billboard blitz streets. Forged streets. Fraudulent streets, too.

angelheaded _ burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night…Shift in tenses. Present tense. Re-contextualization: Wall Street bankers. Foreclosed housing owners. Foreclosed housing buyers. Local government politicians. Large government politicians. Libertarian politicians. Third-Party members. Unregistered teenagers. Drug-using teenagers. Drug busting policeman. Drug-using policeman. The general wayward. Everyone already burning.

II.

_ ! _ ! Nightmare of _ ! _ the loveless! Mental _ ! _ the heavy judger of men! Potential libel. Name omitted. Alternative: A man. A woman. An infant. Boy or girl. The mother. The father. The neighbor. Street vendor. Friends. Enemies. The victim. The victor. Anybody. Everyone. Who is already burning, that is.

III.

Complete erasure: with the absolute _ of the poem of life butchered out of their own bodies good to eat a thousand years. Question mark. Questioning. Transplant of words: Craving of the poem? Inertia of the poem? Recognition of the poem. Desperation of the poem. Blood of the poem. Sickness of the poem. Death knell of the poem. Silence of the poem. Lack of _.