Wednesday, May 8, 2013

4376. ALL OF MY CARGO WENT DOWN WITH THE SHIP

ALL OF MY CARGO WENT
DOWN WITH THE SHIP
'A workingman; I'll be a sonofabitch. Listen here, kid...
I ain't worked in seventeen years.' The train came in,
the engine stood hissing. Marc took the rails to San
Francisco. The Titanic left Southampton on April 10th.
I felt like velvet was leaving my skin : everything out,
nothing in. The moonscape American sky never faltered
back then. 'I was a magistrate in my own domain.
Light me a match then, brother, leave me the candle
to find my way out. These creeps have playing the
same chamber music anyway for three years now -
still can't get it right. What land is this? What land
is this now anyway? No place I ever seen before.'
-
I felt fat but I was skinny like a rail. I never felt hunger
like this before - no money, and everything else going
dark. Dark like some darkie homin' it on home. 'Swing
low, sweet chariot, comin' for to carry me home.' I had
heard that just the other night in a darktown minstrel
show. Why do they have to play in blackface when
they's already black enough? 'One day, one day
John and the boys, they came back after work with
a projector and some films - on that big white warehouse
wall, they was playin' pornographic films all night long.'
-
'Ooh wee! I swears. 'Never seen nothing like that before!'

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