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Madagascar Diary
VI. Balles Perdues
February 14, 1975
Out in the garden
taping roar of reconnaissance
planes circling rebels.
Art requires audace:
O'Neill wrote The Movie Man
American film crew
stirs up Mexicans
to capture them on film
Abbott taped the Kennedy funeral
from TV and intercut
shots of the elms
diseased dying never
to appear again
and Ginsberg shot
footage of Kerouac's funeral.
Now here
taping in French
Stay in your homes --
If out go back in --
If you meet rebels
on the streets
do not provoke them--
Try to talk them
into surrendering--
Conduct them
to the nearest
Gendarmerie
Suddenly, incredibly
shots
sll on tape
my wife shouting
get away from the windows
mitraillette mortar fire
rifle pistol cracks
right there.
I rewind
and erase
all of it
all, I know it
watch it
can't stop it
paralyzed.
After regret, relief.
Better not to tape
make anything of it.
The two nine year olds
won't hear it
one in bed, the other
out looking for milk
struck dead by
Balles perdues.
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