After William Carlos Williams
So much
De
Pends
Upon
the dazed chickens
Fraught
with meltwater
Besides
the demonic and menacing
Ice
cream truck
That
circulates the neighborhood
With
an off-key kilter tune:
(David
sings-“ dee bee dee bee dee bee boop dee poop
Dee
bobbity poop dee do do.”)
David Eberhardt, 83, was a member of the historic Baltimore Four with father Philip Berrigan, Tom Lewis, and Rev. James Mengel; who, in a bold act of civil disobedience, poured blood on draft files at a Selective Service office on October 27, 1967. For this, the group was convicted and sent to federal prison. A fixture of the Baltimore poetry scene since the 1960s, Eberhardt began writing for underground newspapers and has remained an active voice ever since. In recent years he’s turned to parody, crafting takes on works by poets like William Carlos Williams, T.S. Eliot, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His shift reflects a belief that “poetry needs more humor.”
Featured image in this post is, “Gallus gallus domesticus” by Böhringer friedrich, licensed via creative commons 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
