Slamdancing to the Blues (David Lerner)

there’s a sadness that’s
better than love
it fell in the air
the other night

little girl face
with a mind as wild as Egypt

she reads all the high-class
sex literature
the pornography of Miller
even the later novels of Rechy
now into the novelization of
Liquid Sky
and The Apocalypse Culture

during the days she
takes off her clothes to
Tom Waits and the Dead Kennedys
at a theatre on Market
while the customers finger their crotches
and tip paper money

she said, “How do I look?”
and I told her she looked like
a 14-year-old beatnik with an
IQ of 200

she wasn’t sure she liked that
she has invented herself so well
she’s not sure she can
escape

I know that song