Remember Artie Wongay

This poem was writ on the bus from Rousse to Sofia - - - - - & here it is now!

I.
Remember Artie Wongay? refusing to write another Latin opera,
He spilled himself another tall glass of Terra Firma.

Remember, Artie Wongay-- -- Your highest note is my most guttural,
You may be an archvillain but you'll never be my motherall.

Remember Artie Wongay? the same galactic superstar from our rediscovered kingdom--
The same false prophet of the ancients has been lurking home.

Remember, Artie Wongay-- -- The forest set cyclically on fire,
Balancing on daffodils like a whale on a wire.

Remember Artie Wongay! & don't forget him!
He'll follow you in your dreams, eat you as an obese madam.

II.
Remember Artie Wongay? the flames? & the rodeo disco stirrapes?
Are you paying attention to this, come ask her apes.

Remember, Artie Wongay-- -- Now don't let's repossess,
Flight of the flammivomous scarecrows, loser, a coma, scary piss.

Remember Artie Wongay? like swingers, we'll swing from here to there-ish,
Tangents that come out of everywhere like a coked-up priest coming out of his parish.

Remember, Artie Wongay-- -- Your lowest note is my most pathetic.
Spiriduş, spiriduş, you go thru me like a big borscht diuretic.

Remember Artie Wongay! & don't let him be forgotten-- --
Till there's cucumber sandwiches in summer & highways are made out of cotton.

III.
Remember Artie Wongay? the tobacco brush combust again,
The tobacco brush in & out of love, but I mustn't complain.

Remember, Artie Wongay-- -- Tell it to the whores of night justice,
They'll spill for you another tall glass of the earth's crustice.

Remember Artie Wongay? today I've virulent & vital.
I'm the vanguard seer of capitalism, I'm the actuary's meat-hole.

Remember, Artie Wongay-- -- You're a mixture of scum & bismuth,
We will do vorpal battle except for from Thanksgiving thru Chrismuth.

Remember Artie Wongay! & please don't forget him,
Lock him in gyves & smell the ocean if you've ever met him.

IV.
Remember Artie Wongay? savages fornicating on the side of the road,
He was my enemy & he will be again soon when the stars explode.

Remember, Artie Wongay-- -- Your lowest note is my noblest nebulous,
There isn't room enough in any register for the two of us.

Remember Artie Wongay? he torched the redwood,
In a century where you could still smoke on the bus, the living could, the dead could.

Remember, Artie Wongay-- -- This planet is not your abattoir.
Snow on Mercury, rain in Uranus, scrape the ozone with her claw.

Remember Artie Wongay! Don't let him be forgot!
Don't let him be a robot in this wilderness of rot!

V.
Remember Artie Wongay? he wronged you too late & too little,
A villain of Marfan stature & a troublingly easy riddle.

Remember, Artie Wongay-- -- The embers of prudence & fortitude,
A virgin except where we couldn't see, wine & dining her with a platitude.

Remember Artie Wongay? remember his gelatinous melodramatic smirks?
I tell you what I recall, his foulest & least forgiving quirks.

Remember, Artie Wongay-- -- Slabs of granite diving up to the jive,
Spiriduş, spiriduş, come inside of me & stay inside & thrive.

Remember Artie Wongay! keep repeating till you can't be forgotten:
The most Pyrrhic ping-pong tourney we ever fought in.