NO APOLOGY!

let's get something straight.

i'm a full-fledged member of the

60s generation!

The Generation!

not generation x or double x

or even xxx.

No!

i graduated from high school in 1965

and graduated from college in 1969.

i am completely, unapologetically

a complete product of the crazy, wonderful,

mad, hopeful, imaginative, Imaginative,

love-crazed, liberating, generous, brave,

exciting, pure, unadulterated, unexpurgated,

committed, dreaming, dreamful 60s!

the generation that fought for african americans,

women, kids, foreigners, the generation that ended,

ENDED!!! the vietnam war, the generation that kicked

nixon out of office, the generation of martin luther king,

malcolm x, john kennedy, robert kennedy, medgar evers,

the black panters, the weather underground, angela davis,

william kuenstler, bob dylan, the beatles, joan baez,

you name it, you name them, any and all, revolutionaries,

dreamers, fighters.

and us, we, i? we inhaled it, ate it, were eaten by it,

entirely consumed by love and truth and justice

and the will to fight the motherfuckers who pushed

fear and hated on us and the world.

did we lose? NO!! they killed us, murdered us,

lied about us, tricked us, all of it.

but they did not kill us!!

we are here, 60 years old, 65, 70 years old.

you think we're "senior citizens," that shitty,

terrible, bullshit, castrating, condescending term.

you think we're only good for endless commercials

about medicine, illness, hospitals, "senior citizen centers,"

and the rest of it, all of it denying our power, our wisdom,

our endless libidinous energy and courage.

but you're wrong, totally full of shit.

we are here alive and well.

waiting for some generation, ANY GENERATION

to try to match us! waiting for any generation

to join us!!!

rich quatrone July 18, 2012

let's get something straight.

i'm a full-fledged member of the

60s generation!

The Generation!

not generation x or double x

or even xxx.

No!

i graduated from high school in 1965

and graduated from college in 1969.

i am completely, unapologetically

a complete product of the crazy, wonderful,

mad, hopeful, imaginative, Imaginative,

love-crazed, liberating, generous, brave,

exciting, pure, unadulterated, unexpurgated,

committed, dreaming, dreamful 60s!

the generation that fought for african americans,

women, kids, foreigners, the generation that ended,

ENDED!!! the vietnam war, the generation that kicked

nixon out of office, the generation of martin luther king,

malcolm x, john kennedy, robert kennedy, medgar evers,

the black panters, the weather underground, angela davis,

william kuenstler, bob dylan, the beatles, joan baez,

you name it, you name them, any and all, revolutionaries,

dreamers, fighters.

and us, we, i? we inhaled it, ate it, was eaten by it,

entirely consumed by love and truth and justice

and the will to fight the motherfuckers who pushed

fear and hated on us and the world.

did we lose? NO!! they killed us, murdered us,

lied about us, tricked us, all of it.

but they did not kill us!!

we are here, 60 years old, 65, 70 years old.

you think we're "senior citizens," that shitty,

terrible, bullshit, castrating, condescending term.

you think we're only good for endless commercials

about medicine, illness, hospitals, "senior citizen centers,"

and the rest of it, all of it denying our power, our wisdom,

our endless libidinous energy and courage.

but you're wrong, totally full of shit.

we are here alive and well.

waiting for some generation, ANY GENERATION

to try to match us! waiting for any generation

to join us!!!

rich quatrone July 18, 2012

WHAT WE DO TO CHILDREN

Sandusky and Paterno surprise everyone.
Then, tell me, why don't thy surprise me?
Shock me, yes. Surprise, no.
Read Criminal Schools, my play.
Look at Iraq and  Afghanistan.
Too much of a stretch for you?
What, that we should have violently
barged into two poor nations for the sake
of oil and future markets and turned them
into chaos.
What of the children in those countries?
And what of the young people here, almost
all of them poor, who go to fight these wars,
if you can call them legitimately wars, which
implies equal armies in combat, and learn to
kill and destroy, who themselves are killed,
who are maimed both physically and emotionally,
only to return to America and receive poor medical
attention or none? And what of their families, these
existentially courageous young people whose courage
could and should have been put to much better
use and guided by elders in this country?
But, then, we do not have elders, do we?
We have "senior citizens," people not even afforded
the dignity of being old women and old men and,
yes, elders with wisdom we make a place for in
our society.
So, the abuse of children at Penn State?
A surprise?
When football rules that university, when the money
involved in the program and the advertising and all
the rest of it.
Protection of children?
In our schools, on our streets, in our homes?
Hardly.


Rich Quatrone July 12 2012

GIVING UP MONEY

A poor man never gives up money.
Money has already given him up.

Middle class and wealthy men give up money.
As if they ever really could.

As if, when the appendix goes, or the mind,
the family won't come running in and save
the guy.

Or as if inside the imagination the comfort
of having the rent paid or better having
been brought up in a house your family owned,
as if these aren't permanently inside you.
The foundation laid by the making of money
by someone, anyone, behind you.

The poor man has no such luxuries.
The poor man would never give up money,
and certainly never voluntarily.

To the contrary, the poor man will get his
money any way he can to feed his kids,
his family, himself.

The poor man would like to have a second
pair of pants or another shirt.

Or even a ten year old car and the ability
to pay the car insurance.

So, let's stop the crap about giving up
money.


Rich Quatrone July 2 21012

PREVIEW

You try to stay low, keep your head beneath the fray,
avoid the carnage, the remorse, the guilt, the violence
of spirit and deed.

You try not to take sides.
But the sides will take you one way or the other.

You will relive your sins in the end.

Rich Quatrone July 2 2012