There are many historical male poets derelict

but the women all beautiful or well to do

save the obscure few

but when the derelict women

come for the laurel wreath

when the hag haired sots smile

thru rotting mouths with atrophied wombs

eructating abortions & other misfortunes

this scene will change

They’ll come from food stamp streets

like everything wrong television

they won’t need know the Clorox

test for cocaine

or what myriad undulations of liberation

mean to co-eds masturbating at Bergman movies

they’ll come with tired feet

of concrete floors canneries & beaneries

they’ll come with bleached eyes & blue lips

and pimped gone beauty

they’ll come with dignity

they’ll come like Mothers

The derelict women poets are coming!

~ Oakland ‘75

Andy Clausen has travelled and read his poetry all over North America and the world. (New York, California, Alaska, Texas, Prague, Kathmandu, Amsterdam and elsewhere) He was co-editor of POEMS FOR THE NATION with Allen Ginsberg and Eliot Katz (Seven Stories Press). He was an editor at LONG SHOT Magazine. Andy has written about his adventures with Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Ray Bremser, Janine Pommy Vega, Peter Orlovsky, and many others of the Beat Generation. He is the author of “40^th Century Man” and “Home of the Blues”, among other books of poetry. His latest book, “Beat: The Latter Days of the Beat Generation, a First Hand Account” was published by Autonomedia in fall of 2018.