by Jack Kerouac
A hard hearted old farmer
hidin his wine in the cellar
When he goes out he wears
earmuffs
He has a doublebitted axe
sharp enough
to shave shit
His people are all buried
in the same cemetery,
which is located
under the doorstep
where the boy
couldnt get through
from the tomb
41TH CHORUS
If we do battle,
Monsieur,
And you lose,
I gain nothing,
And if I lose,
you gain
Satisfaction
This is what the peasant said
when the aristocrat
challenged him to a duel
Women move slowly
but they dont stop
Europe, weep in your gloomy
rain
I brought it to him
so I could get you
in Paradise
42TH CHORUS
Abraham, drinking water by the tents
Pacing up & down the soft sand
under the stars
Worrying about Villages
Wondering if your vision was real
or just a foolish importunity
in your mind.
Yet moving on in the morning anyway
with the rattle of pack asses.
Abraham, the dew is in your beard
Abraham my eyes are open
You are weird
Abraham they’ve brought you
Your rooftops are mended
Your women bend no more
their heads under the sleepy
tentflap, & goats dont yew
& cry nomo in the singsong
tentvillage night
43RD CHORUS
Abraham I didnt write this right
44TH CHORUS
Dont ever come to Florida
A man was gettin up for work
& reached under his bed
in Kissimee
and a coral snake
bit him, February Florida
(lookin for his shoes)
A little boy playin in his yard
was et by a alligator
(true)
And an old lady dyin in her bed
was et up by fire ants
which found her
clean from the yard
And my mother saw a lizard
one foot long
on the garbage pail
that had big red eyes
(The fire ants went in
thru the mouth, man)
45TH CHORUS
There’s a middlewestern prurience
about Greeks.—
Your little earth-nut, O potato
war, riots mama dears around
papap’s paternal root
Silkyboo
(oo!)
Found the Sound
46TH CHORUS
Hollywood boy sing dog song
Dont be fooled by gun car
Or shine in hat of Sheriff
Cochise,
or turn that dial,
boy, you know whats happen
to you when yard dog
bit your fame
Yair, & dont sweep any leaves,
Watch me play basketball
I guess—
In Inverness, where I’sa
played hogball since
your pappy skinned
—Okay, old
suit, see
ya more
47TH CHORUS
Airplanes dropping barrels
of shit on the White House
On Roosevelt’s very head
What do the women know
of the wood?
All they gotta do is get drunk,
Honorary Mayor
Up sprang the butcher boy
with the spring old man!
Why’st the fool play thou?
Because fools always follow.
Followest what?
Because fooly are always follying?
Nay, Sire, it was forgotten
in that body’s balconeer
48TH CHORUS
God ushered me into my house
What a batting champeen
honorable American Navy
Sweetheart God is to us
Japanese Rigour Girls
Buy that, Moke!
Dazz, I’ze innerested
in drape fall circus
and yo, yo got childrees
pleak okomiko bonny
sugar, ah, sweet,
dont let Robert Burns
burn that cigar of yours
Or mice lay men
to diamondshine
your kittlepee poopoo
Grace,
Otherwise purd
Hurt
New Year
49TH CHORUS
Way out
But not too way out
Barefaced wretch—
you’re a pretty nice
barefaced wretch—
as bare faced wretches
go
True Toy!
Great day in the morning,
Ugh-y!
50TH CHORUS
Hollywood, if you want
little girls raped by sex
fiends, dont hint with
symbols, give it to me
Straight
Otto was pretty miserable
He chased little girls
to rape in sawdust
apartments yet unbuilt
He was a ugly big Otto
but O when I was
a little girl I loved
all that
The lovely maniac
makes me smile
51ST CHORUS
Who is going to get rid
of his discriminating mind,
which is the way to
heaven, when he is being
eaten by crocodiles?
By means of his extremely
slow metabolism he was
enabled to keep far
on the father light,
far from the energy
particle of the mother
Ah, it’s a depressing situation:
we imagine that
we live and imagine
that we die, too bad,
too bad
Manly manly manly friend
says the faggot on TV
CERRADA MEDELLIN BLUES
(FIRST SOLO)
1ST CHORUS
Even when I was a little boy
I was always alone
with my guardian angel
Playing Tarzan
An icicle fell on me
& cut my arm
I had a rope around my neck
I was hanged in Innifree
Had my hand cut off in Perfldee
Never had my fill
of Thee
ST MICHAEL IN THE CORNER,
NINE FEET TALL
2TH CHORUS
The Only One
said Christ to me
When you’re alone in Heaven
with God
Who is my Father
and Thine
You’ll know that y
our self
you
And your guardian angel,
One,
And the self of any
Is
The Only One—
Sad Bent Head
in “Cant-Get-Away
From-That-Tnnisfree”
3RD CHORUS
I wonder what’s hiding
in the Cross?
Did Jesus free the world?
Before him there were murders
officially.
From body to effigy
went history.
Emily Dickinson me that,
Thomas Hardy.
Roll me a pearl me
that, O Big Sur Sea.
And you, Ferlinghetti,
how do you like that
For rhyming free
Free of a doctor’s degree.
Jean Louee.
4TH CHORUS
When I drink Bénédictine
I drink what the Holy
Father
Blessed
I drink the blood of Christ?
Naw!
I drink Christ hisself—
I say “Thank ye, God”
and drink—
And kiss the bottle
With the Cross on it
And D.O.M.
the director of drinkers—
The Heavenly Daiquiri?
The troublesome Innisfree.
5TH CHORUS
What’s all this Innisfree
Running straight thru me?
Was Yeats invented it?
Or O’Shawn the Yurner?
Repetitive old rolling
smoke balloons?
Paul Newman’s mouth
with Spanish ladies
arguing?
What?—Some truck?
Some cigaree? Halles
Market onions are free?
My Guardian Angel’s
About to tell me—
6TH CHORUS
Alone with my Guardian Angel
Alone in Innisfree
Alone in Mexico
City
Alone with Benedict,
Cave is free,
alone is alone,
Thou Only One—
Alone and Alone
The song of the pree
(Pree means prayer
in English & Frenchie)
Choose yr words lightly,
shit on the world,
Merton’ll die
when he reads
this from me
7TH CHORUS
I love Lax
A regular Pax
I love Lax
not Ex Lax
but
you see
Now Lax
But’s teeth ne’er held
The comedian so grand
As them Lax horse teeth
Held prayer
to ground
Lax is a singer
Lax is a goner
Lax is a gonna
get mad onner
8TH CHORUS
My hand is moved
by holy angels
The life we are in
is invisible
Holy Ghost
If you could see me,
hoodlum,
You’d be Saint
Cant slash
at a loser
For Oy Yai O Paint
—Those lies are for liars
And me I’m a liar,
So liars forget
the handsome beget
The ugliest pricks
The angel beset
9TH CHORUS
But I stopped to think
The angel dont care
Nine feet tall
Beside the wall
Wants me cut out
To do the rub out
But I got fathers to care for
Father Shoyer is one
Father Gioscia is two
That’s enough for you
—Ah Lucien
Al Jalisco
Ah I’m drunk
borracho
10TH CHORUS
Too drunk to write
Cant see the light
It’s a strange thing when nuts
get together
To form one cock—
Young girls should shudder
in that empty light—
The holy of angels,
I wonder what’s he think?
Shd push pencils
for agers, masagers,
Masseurs and all?
Oll? Lovely bedoodlers
in Time’s Holy All
Holiest Ghostliest
ramified Hall
11TH CHORUS
And, said I to the Angel,
that shall certainly do,
And the Angel said:
D you remember Gregory?
Corso, the Way of Poetry?
Orlovsky too?
And Ginsberg O Shay?
And Burroughs the Master
speaks thru his teeth?
And the writer of story
the generous Honkey?
And Lafcadio the Holy
Innocent of Russia,
the Patriarch, & Sebastian?
And Lucien?
And Neal Cassady?
12TH CHORUS
Move my hand Lord
move my hand
Tell Ray Bremser
something calm him
down
Tell Leroi Jones
& Diane di Prima
tooo
They dont know
that Heaven
which is waiting for them
In the land of OO
(SECOND SOLO)
1ST CHORUS
“You can think by yourself”
says God from Heaven
Talking to all 70 thousand
Billion Four Thousand
Eighty Two Trillions
of Creatures in his Movie
called “Creation”
(pause)
2ND CHORUS
He means that all
those sentient beings
are free to think unimpeded
—Only God is the Only One
who knows that all the thinking
going on
is what the thinking going on
is thinking
And none of it ever happened
SHTMIMK!
Shtmimk?
3RD CHORUS
But like any other movie
the thinking is gray
but also big romances
like Latin Love You music
& all of it seems so golden
steada gray.
That’s because it’s a very strange
movie
It is strange as dulcet gray.
Hey looka me Ma
I’m writing like Yorkshire
Pudding De-Headed Gray
The proof is in the pudding
they Bray
Just like any other old Canaday
4TH CHORUS
The brain is a pudding
with raisins in’t
Hey looka me Ma I’m thinking
like Otay—
Okay, Mémo,
Está bien, Mémo,
Parandero.
(That’s what they mean Espanish
‘Hey kiddy, dont hit
the bars too much,
chico.’
Hey Baby dont yup at me
in Azmetec!)
Yair, Pard old Hoopard
Hoomingway blew his head
over Old I-day-o
5TH CHORUS
Hemingway Blues, is called.
Me too Blues—You Blues
—Thinkin Blues—Paris
Blues and Blacks—
Hurshy, move the tack!
Dont bring me no le-mon
chiffin, pie, man,
I’ll break yore head in
Head already broken in
No chin
Yes chin
Soft Chin
Northport Autumn
falling leaves blues
And winter white
sailboat philosopher
blues, on sand,
Lois and Victor by name.
6TH CHORUS
All kindsa fine blues
even this minute
in Vera Cruz,
Terre Haute,
Montana,
Golgotha,
Heaven Door.
All kindsa information rattlin
back & forth
Crazy old angel midnight
world talkin singin
rubbin antennaes
High on antenni
and go Mondadori’n
in Italy for to see sweep
of Gary Venice Door’s
Venetian oar
7TH CHORUS
Or go Atyastapafi’n
in other planets?
Goo, what a gaw!
And does wet boulders think?
I see the face of Christ
in the door
after it has been the face
of the Dog, the Owl,
the Lamb, the Lion,
Christ, the Dog again,
the Collie then suddenly
my God the Colleen!
Her soft brown eyes,
esperanza morena,
Then it’s Christ again,
this time in profile
—This I just saw.