House of Paine

leninist square dancer

just another
Leninoid square dancer

some times one
gets pulled up short

the following recollection
in fact
pulled me up so short
it nearly
yanked my
frickin' head off



------------------------------------------------

the other day
god damn aimless fucking reading
caused me to cross
paths with one
Irwin Silber
as he got himself
mentioned on the fly
in a woody guthrie bio

this Silber's mention
brought me back
with a nasty lurch
and a long buzz of shame
to "the struggle and  me"

particularly the moments
that flamed into a ring of fire
" around"
the 1979 Hanoi
invasion of KR cambodia
--------------------------

some where along the road
back there
I think maybe
the winter of  1980
I'm at some pro Hanoi
hoot'n hoorah
called together by a group
of marxian totz

that particular nite
the key noter
iz this  Irwin Silber
a pompous old badger
recently self liberated
from a column
he'd  tortured
me and my kind  with
for years

it had appeared
seemingly without fail
issue after issue
in " the Guardian"
an Indy Rad Rag
---------------------------------
well
at any rate

here he is
back then
up on a junior high stage
looking and intonating
all too amazingly
just   like
todays radio reich's
michael savage

only old Irwin's  phrases
were torn from
hiz columns
which themselves
were redactions
jiggered out of
the  pages of V.I himself
pages parsed down to
ever so small pieces
and pasted together
like a kidnappers note

so
on he runs and runs
his miserably airballish
columns
now performed with
desicated vitality
and a careful self delight

in near no time
my ass
is squealing at me

but  his vladilkish
wordings
keep a comin'
flung forth
scoop after
solemn scoop
turgid bilgey  leninade

poured freely all over
revisionist Pei-king
and her madcap  protoges
  my boyz the KRs

and as he's
corking right along
up there
beard and mane
badger white and black
dunking the sellout  culprits

BLIM BLIM BLIM

subjecting uz all
to a real  red  clinic
" great han chauvinism"
" asian Avakians"
" metaphysical boners"

" liberal delusionary national rights"
at each point
stabbing the garden variety
" left" coverage
for the inevitable
  paucity of deep" debates"
and even deeper " analysis "

and all of it
phrase after
butt crumping  phrase
sprinkling
high holy water

here a " dialectical" drip
and
there a "materialist " drop
on
and
on
and
on

whata bloomin'  agony

and all around him
the whole fuckin' time
his sub thirty
kideepantz acolytes
are nodding away
dutifully
at each
and every
jargon charged bopaloo
----------------------------------------
after say 45 minutes
of this
trees into boards
type
sawing

suddenly
obviously
unable to stand anymore
one of us uninvited Maoites
this towering blob
of a MEETING hall scrambler
from  the old Rev Hindquarters-
we ligafites use to call
comrade Bullwinkle
stands up
all 6 foot 5 of him
antlers at full spread
and shouts

" Irwin you old baffoon
why don't ya
give these weeny ones
of yours
a fuckin brake
and  go back to
something
you can handle
like   square dancing

why the fuck don't ya
Irwin
I here you used ta
cut a mean
partner pass"

as might be expect
that was the  unintended
signal
for alargely
spontaneous
 Maoite  bums rush
towards the podium

needless to say
Silber in a matter of moments
was deprived of his
"illusary metaphsical free speach rights"
-------------------------------
after the action
later that nite 
at
 Pub Zero
I found out
the back story

turns out
during the golden period
  of the old party

the post pearl harbor
  War years

this Silber guy
as his cadre assignment
was
" the folk dancing master"
for the partie's 
 new york district

and here
 37 years later
I'd been
 listening in bored agony 
as
 this ex yoddlemeister
played 
 high wizzard
to a detachment of
later day
  boho would be leninists
-------------------------------------
and there
 he was again
just the other day
surface braking
  in this Guthrie bio

out of the blue
the fucking run on 
time wasting idle hour 
shit stream 
mentions Silber 
and his 
" many war time square dances"


so AS  I'm reading  this
 it seems 
INADVERTENTLY 
 I  HIT
 MY A.D.D SWITCH
and now 
i'm  thinking
 of Old Irwin
then comes 
the match up
with Savage  nation
and well
 after a little more 
hopping 
from dis to dat
i'm
asking myself

"at long last
is me 
is pinky
a small potatos
  Irwin Silber "

an old bit bit belated player
version
and 
at that
a triffling  belated
bit bit player
 a voice
from out of the
total 
hind end 
of those high  glory days
known 
for  their
  new left

eeerrrrrrrrrrrrh

kold cure 
shame
obtains a solid grip

then again
fortunately
no ones publishing me
let alone reading me

so far
its safe to say
" I'm no mini Silber "

except that is
to myself
my familly
and
what  few remaining  friends
I still have

all of whom
know the real dimensions
of pinky's story