Leproid turn on, tune in
California ex-pat
high school drop-outs
put me up
in Seattle commune
for a few days
between 1st – 2nd years
of med school
when my Jewfro
ass hitchhiked
toward Canada
oy to avoid Vietnam…
I would like to wish
you a healthy and peaceful
Decoration Day.
To my brother
who was drafted
kicking and screaming,
I know you know
the true meaning.
You da man.
Deep respect
for doing what so few could.
Serving two tours in Nam
plus one of the coast
in the South China sea (east),
he felt then well as now
that we did some good,
“Sacrificing for your country’s
always the right thing to do —
hasn’t changed, just the people.
Example just look at this past
Memorial Day weekend
and all the crowds”…
We dropped LSD several times.
I walked around the port
shoeless which cut
both feet something fierce.
Ferry to island, imagined
a huge pristine porcelain
white restroom
to be obvious place of worship.
Sailors on leave
went in as uniformed he-men
only to come out
transvestites
to liminate bit of fun.
Arrived somewhere,
Gerski spent rest of trip
perched in a sapling
trying to escape.
Rosie Haliday,
an under-age
egg-farmer
met in Sonoma’s town circle green
on way north from Stanford —
her parents returned
from July 4 holiday unexpectedly
then while called him a Nazi square
his pistol flushed daughter plus intruder
from their master bed
into Highway 101’s
Ford flat-bed truck
— sat cement at base of tree
to wait and if needed
offer protection,
before eventually gathered
us toward reality.
Our odd little duo crashed
that evening at old friend
from overnight camp’s
most understanding
plus generous Orthodox
mom ‘n dad amen.
Long story [not] short,
making it back down
as it were from Vancouver
[bitch to get rides
since now alone],
got rolled by a couple
who’d grabbed backpack
well as wallet
(lucky didn’t slip over cliff),
hippy bus took Sarnatzky
high on Mount Shasta
to their camp…
next morning
cats passed Zeus hat
for bus money
soz could Greyhound
to recover with buddy
in Berserkley flatlands.
Gerard Sarnat won the Poetry in the Arts First Place Award plus the Dorfman Prize, and has been nominated for a handful of recent Pushcarts plus Best of the Net Awards. Gerry is widely published in academic-related journals (e.g., University Chicago, Stanford, Oberlin, Brown, Columbia, Harvard, and others) plus national (e.g., Gargoyle, Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, American Journal Of Poetry, The New York Times, and others) and international publications (e.g., Review Berlin, Voices Israel, Foreign Lit, and others). He’s authored the collections Homeless Chronicles (2010), Disputes (2012), 17s (2014), Melting the Ice King (2016). Gerry is a physician who’s built and staffed clinics for the marginalized as well as a Stanford professor and healthcare CEO. Currently he is devoting energy/ resources to deal with global warming. Gerry’s been married since 1969 with three kids plus six grandsons, and is looking forward to future granddaughters.
You can follow him at gerardsarnat.com