Repression Square

In New York, just next to its
statue of liberty
i saw Repression Square
where rosa parks once sat
in a segregated seat in a segregated crossing
a little black dot in an otherwise very white place
with bugles and ceremonies and bright flags
all boasting about liberty and its grand theories

In Repression Square,
you do not see pink goblins bloating
with overexposure to the sun in summer
red sails do not sail in a summer of discontent
[slaves hold them back in case the heavens fall]
the cotton fields once plagued with pests
now are plagued with another pest
a self-righteous pest that rides
on the bovine back of a bison
with a white curved horn that is worshipped
as if it were some aphrodisiac from the old Orient
[which incidentally too was once just a piece of cake]

Oh, New York, New York
Liza Minelli's great town
it was so great once even kings worshipped it
kissed its pavements with tired red lips
for not sending them back to the ghettoes
of Berlin or Auschwitz or the black hole of Calcutta
Here history is taught so well
that kids dont even know their history well
the cradle of history is not Mesopotamia
but New Orleans
the first civilized cities were not Mohenjo Daro and Harappa
but Las Vegas and Los Angeles
not because of any lack of tools
but because they were just American cities
and which country has a better foreign policy
or a better way of going to war [and messing up]
but America, grand old America
and New York is its citadel, its temple,
with its gambling dens, its cheats, its mafias,
Wall Street is the most beautiful cathedral in America
it promotes charity on a Russian roulette table
meant for street urchins who pick their food
everytime gold nuggets fall down from heaven

Oh, New York, New York
Repression sure aint like the art of love here
in the grandest of all temples of doom
west of the Suez Canal ...