When Lawrence Ferlinghetti walked among us
baseball players didn’t just come
from Nicaragua
Poet-ballplayers went down to Managua
and talked to Sandinistas
about fireballing
Cuban revolutionaries who might have played
for the Yankees
In the American League
If General Eisenhower had not sent a U2 plane
to spy on Russia
and Batista
had not been a fan
of American football.
When Lawrence Ferlinghetti went to court
to protect the words of Allen
Ginsberg
the mean Tweet had yet to be invented
And no one nominated to run the OMB
was ever disqualified for saying
Ted Cruz
is
the Clown
Prince
of Texas.
You see, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
knew what a good clown
was
and what a clown-in-power
is
101 years on Earth
Epic poems about Nixon
and who got to watch one last
inauguration
where that man from Queens
who thinks he’s a King
was sent to contemplate his navel
in a castle by the sea
A site Lawrence Ferlinghetti always could foresee-