There’s a hippie in the laundromat
and he’s shouting:
“Peace to shirts!
Peace to pants!
Peace to socks!
Peace to undies!”
Well, not really
…but in my current state of mind
I wish he would, you know,
give me some cosmic assurance
as I put the downy in the rinse cycle,
I need some sort of 60’s rebellion
something to give me that passion
that I need – I’m listening
I’m listening hippie
I’m listening
So I put the quarters in the dryer
then the hippie jumps up on top of the counter
screaming: “It’s time brothers and sisters!
Rejoice for inner peace can be found within yourself!”
I hear a 20-minute Jerry Garcia guitar solo
mellowing inside my head
and I scream at the hippie,
“Right on brother!
Right on sister!
Right on!”
The people in the laundromat
are startled, so I hold up my lighter
letting his cosmic assurances pour into my soul,
and the candles flicker in the rain
and I imagine making love in the mud at woodstock
rolling around rolling around tasting colours
in a black and white world, and I scream at the hippie:
“I love you!
I love you!
I love you!”
Hey Hippie, where are you going?
I’m not finished with you!
Come back here!
…bastard.
Video
Notes
- You never know what you’ll stumble upon when digitizing your old poems. For this piece, I wrote a poem, a lyric (nothing like the poem) and unless my memories have become disjointed over time, I’m fairly certain that The Hated Uncles performed this piece a couple of times. No recorded evidence and I can’t remember which version of The Uncles may have done it live…but I’m fairly certain.
- The lyric was too silly not to record…and do a video with lots of hippie drawings!
Written: 1987; Video & Recording: 2020