Four Saints and a Demon Chewing Tobacco

These are the troubled times
of tortured folksongs,
before the last war
ended
and I am not yet reincarnated
into Dylan Thomas.

This is when I and I get married,
age together, die in Montevideo,
before the last war
ended
and I discover the secret
of life reincarnated as Allen Ginsberg
at the wake for Sal Paradise,
tobacco and Sunday paper in hand,
before the last war
ended
and I, considering implants,
reincarnate as Gertrude Stein.

Nature wins the war, fifty years
after my last reincarnation,
when you think you're doing me
but I'm on top.

Published in the July, 2008, Cause & Effect copyright Sergio Ortiz