JFK

The 49th anniversary of the assassination. A few days later I added new lyrics to the tune of Woody Guthrie's "Dust Storm Disaster":  The Ballad of JFK.

More recently is this, from the chapter "CJ and the Shrink" in my novel Sodom, Gomorrah & Jones:

CJ cleared his throat and tried. Why was he so nervous? He continued.

“Take something that hits close to home. The political assassination of President Kennedy. That's what it amounted to. A political coup.”

“You really think so?”

The doctor seemed surprised.

CJ said, “There is no doubt there were front entry wounds. Every doctor who first saw the body said so, before the body was doctored to hide them. For Christ's sake, a cop walking behind the car was splattered with brain matter! Many people saw smoke, smelled gun powder, at the grassy knoll. This isn't made up. This is what witnesses saw. Front entry wounds mean more than one shooter. Which means a conspiracy.”

CJ stopped. He realized he was shaking.

“That was a long time ago. What about all this is upsetting you today?” the doctor asked.

CJ stood up.

“Why the hell aren't you upset? Why the hell isn't everyone upset? They overthrew your government, for God's sake! How can you live your life as if nothing had happened?”

There was a long pause.

“Maybe this is a good place to stop,” said Dr. Peters. “Is the same time next week convenient to you?”

CJ took a deep breath.

“There is no next time, doc. I'm out of here.”

And from my recent book of poems, In My Old Age:

American History In My Lifetime

So there was this President

and he actually was going to

change the power structure in

the country, which of course

threatened those who held the

power. They conspired to protect

what they considered theirs

and successfully assassinated

the sonofabitch President who

dared to think he could change

the status quo. They killed the

sonofabitch. They actually did.

And the plan was so good they

even had a fall guy and they

killed him too so he couldn't

talk. And there was so much

dirty laundry everywhere that

an actual honest investigation

was impossible without dire

consequences,"national security"

and all that, so they made

a half-ass investigation they hoped

would put the matter to rest

forever. Unfortunately a few loonies

didn't buy the official results

and investigated on their own

and came up with unbelievable

frightening theories about what

actually happened, which in fact

was pretty close to what happened,

and many people believed them except

for some reason they didn't get

pissed off enough to take to

the streets and demand full

disclosure. Instead they just

shrugged and said, Well politicians lie

and there's nothing to be done

about it. So nothing actually

changed even though many folks

realized they'd been duped.

They went shopping and forgot

about it. And the original

criminals who assassinated the

sonofabitch President in the

first place retained power

and now could relax because

they learned a profound lesson:

in the end shopping wins out

and if you let people shop,

hell, they'll put up with

anything.

"If you let people shop, hell, they'll put up with anything." Maybe the truest words I ever wrote, sad to say.