Lou Reed

Times Trash Talk

By: Charles Giuliano - Oct 31, 2015

Lou Reed

The Times today
Review of Lou Reed
Bio by Howard Sounes
Some fucker
Looking for a buck
Trash Talk
Monster myth
Truth or dare
Who cares
Only for the famous
Or nearly so
Nobody remembers
The peccadilloes
Of you and me
Just average blokes
Not like Bush
Bone headed poofta
Faking it during
Vietnam
National Guard Holiday
All those scams
Sure we have them too
But not big time
Changing the course
Of history
Other than our own
Soft tales
Played out in verse
To amuse ourselves
Perhaps a few others
Better to rehash
Crazed tormented souls
Artists crying out
For our sins
Unable to save themselves
Or even a dog
Rescued from the
Burning buildings
Of self
Rest with no peace
In graves dug
By rock’n’roll

Lou Two

That Dante night
St. Marks Place
Renee Ricard
Decadent poet hustler
My Virgil
The Dom
Exploding Plastic Inevitable
He kicked the giant ball
Velvet Underground
Nico on vocals
The G doing his whip dance
In leather pants
Don’t fit no more
Taking a walk
On the wild side
All those times since
Over and over
Steve and the
Woodrose Ballroom
Woven in
Press conference
Years later
Hosted by
Don Delacey and RCA
Gone solo
Almost famous
Snarled at us
Drank bottle of
Courvoisier
In an hour
Afternoon before
Sloppy staggering gig
All style no substance
Before he went clean
So we’re told
Like Laurie’s gig
At Mass MoCA
With Lou on the leash
I asked him about
Jonathan Richman and
The Modern Lovers
He worshiped Lou
But Reed just scoffed
Snapped out of stupor
Sent a zinger at me
Later told Jonathan
In the Square
Lou said that
Stunned response
Killed the messenger
In Dublin
Learned of his death
In the Irish press
Seemed so odd
How legends end
I read the news today
Oh boy