A Little Washington DC Dream
The Due D’Aumal’s cannonballs
Are being marshmellowed 370 years from their masonic inception
Now lie on the Potomac
The Due D’Aumal’s balls cannonaded
Split
Through mirror teeth Washington D.C.
Black City of white rectangular bits of fear
Blown fluff of fear
O the Duke of Aumal’s balls are raging
Yellow vermin white houses of fear
And beautiful funky people
Diamond heart D’Afrique
Human blood human need
Black booming emotional vibes of life
White geometry of abstract cerebral death
I really saw at Fort McNair
In front of American General’s mansion
A fir-tree tied down to a black coffiny box
Jefferson’s phantom always rides tonight
There’s a solar splendor burst from Eighteenth-Century Cannon of the Due D’Aumal
I’m sure Citizen Lafayette was no dixiecrat
Copyright Credit: Philip Lamantia, “A Little Washington DC Dream” from The Collected Poems of Philip Lamantia. Copyright © 2013 by Philip Lamantia. Reprinted by permission of University of California Press.
Source: The Collected Poems of Philip Lamantia (University of California Press, 2013)