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\title{Poem for Warner Stringfellow}
\date{1969}
\author{John Sinclair}
\subtitle{}
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\begin{document}
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{\usekomafont{title}{\huge Poem for Warner Stringfellow\par}}%
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{\usekomafont{author}{John Sinclair\par}}%
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{\usekomafont{date}{1969\par}}%
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\begin{quote}
Detective Lieutenant,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
Detroit Narcotics Squad,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
who has been single-handedly responsible
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
for busting me on two separate occasions
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
for possessing and selling marijuana
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
and who stumbled into my new apartment last night by accident
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
over a year since the last time he saw me
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& two years to the day after he first busted me —
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
Warner you are living in another century, this new one started
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
while you were running around in circles
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
chasing dangerous criminals
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
to keep the city safe from marijuana
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& people like me—“I know what you are,”
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
you told me last night, “and when I get you again
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
you ain’t gettin’ off so easy. I’ll
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
DROWN you
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
you worthless prick” you said
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
But it won’t be so easy “next time,” Warner,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
if there is a next time,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
because this whole new thing is getting
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
so far out of your clutches
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
you don’t even know what it is—
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
Except you can sense it
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
with what senses you have left, you know somehow
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
that things ain’t what they used to be, that this world
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
is changing so fast
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
you haven’t even got a place in it no more
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
Your old-time power \& control have no place in this world,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
Warner, \& as long as you keep trying to hang onto them
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
you’ll just get farther \& farther behind
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
until you die Warner, until you’re dead.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
Not too long ago, Warner,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
I would have given anything
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
just to get my hands around your neck
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
and choke you to death
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
But that time is past, there’s no need of it, you’ll die anyway
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
any thing will, when it stops growing
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& there’s no more need for it
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
in the world —
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
There’s no need for you now, Warner, tho it may take 20 years
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
before you or the people you have made it your life to lie to
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
find out your uselessness \& criminality—
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
You can’t make me a criminal, Warner,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
you should know that by now, \& your prisons \& courts
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
don’t scare me anymore, I know what you are
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& I don’t hate you anymore, I won’t let you trap me in that tiny little bag of yours, I won’t respond
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
the way you have to have me respond
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
because it’s too late for that now, Warner,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
it’s just too damn late for those games,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
the whole fucking UNIVERSE
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
is right there in front of our eyes
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& it’s all I can do
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
to stay open to it now
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
while it’s still “my” time
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
Even the 6 months you got me in your prison, Warner,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
only made me stronger \& less afraid
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
of the puny fear traps
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
that are your only tool—what’re-you gonna do,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
Lieutenant Stringfellow,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
when you have to try to arrest
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
all the people younger than I am
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
who smoke marijuana every day
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& don’t even care about you at all, when you come to bust them
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
all they’ll do is laugh in your face, you’re so funny, you come on
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
like someone on your tv set, all that 1930s shit,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
or 1950s, the century changed
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
at 1960, you’re as out-of-date
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
as the House Un-American Activities Committee
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
who tried to scare the young cats in 1966
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& these cats showed up wearing Revolutionary War costumes
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
laughing at you—
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
it’s 19-sixty-six Warner,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
there is no thing to fear
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
except your jails, \& they’ll fall soon
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
they’re fallen now, they don’t mean anything any more
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& even if you kill us all off that’s no big thing Warner,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
we just get born again
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
more \& more aware of what’s really happening in the universe
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
but it’s too late to kill us all, you missed your chance
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
in 1959, before the whole thing really started
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
you’ve been playing that funny shit for 2000 years
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& all you’ve got is a gun \& a badge \& a house in a nice neighborhood
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& a car \& a tv set
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& you can’t even talk to your own kids
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
they just don’t wanna hear it, you send them to psychiatrists
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& they go over to somebody’s house \& smoke reefer
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
listen to the FUGS \& John Coltrane \& Sun Ra
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& don’t even think about you until they have to go home
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& what a drag that is, Warner, going home to their atrophied parents
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
Who are dying in their living room chairs watching BATMAN on tv
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& dancing the frug with Jackie Kennedy in their dreams
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
What kind of life have you got, Warner,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
when you have to sit \& think about me
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
for over two years, and I’m 25 now, what’re you gonna do
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
with all these fucking kids who are crazier than I am
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& don’t care what you do, you ain’t nothin to them, \& in
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
four years Warner, half the U.S. population will be under twenty-five years of age
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
Your’re HOOKED, Warner Stringfellow, you’re strung out
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
you’ve shot so much of that dope in your head that shit Harry Anslinger \& Hoover sold you
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
but all it is is JUNK, Warner,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& you can’t keep selling people forever they get hip to you, they don’t want any more of it
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
they’ve had enough, they want something REAL, Warner,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& you just ain’t got it to give to them
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
They don’t care about titles no more, Warner, a lieutenant
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
ain’t nothin but a cop, \& a cop ain’t shit
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
They wanna see who WARNER STRINGFELLOW is,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& what he does with himself, that badge \& title
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
ain’t gonna fool nobody no more
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
not like it has, they’ll do like I do \&
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
call you by your given name, that’s all
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
any man needs, you won’t get me Warner, even
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
if you lock me up again, because you’re the one who’s trapped\_
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
in all that Aristotelian bullshit, the world is not black \& white, it’s
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
all colors, Warner, all you need to do
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
is open your God-given eyes and see it
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& I hope you do,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
you’re a man too,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
all of us are,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
and every man is made to be free
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
I love you like I do any natural-born man
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
but you got to BE a man, Warner, not a cop
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
you got to open yourself up or be
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
shut off completely
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
as you are now
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
from the world of human beings—
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
Come on out of that jail, Warner,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
let your criminals go, you’ve just trapped them
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
in your silly bag, \& there’s no need for those games,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
we’re all lovely \& free Warner,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
we’re all human beings, \& nothing you can do
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
can ever change the universe—
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
I get up to change the record, Eric Dolphy
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
OUT TO LUNCH, it’s 7 in the morning \& the world
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
changes too, it moves farther
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
away from where you are, my wife turns over in bed
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
she’s probably dreaming about you—you put her in jail too,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
Warner, but only overnight, \& you took her man away
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
for six whole months—we celebrated our 1\textsuperscript{st} anniversary
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
while I was in your jail, \& it only made us stronger
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& more together than before—you see
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
how puny your bullshit punishments are. And now
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
we’ll bring our own baby into the world
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& see what it can do for you, even tho you want to
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
wipe out its father
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
even before it’s born
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& my wife feels sorry for you, Warner,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
just to show you what you’re up against with us.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
she really won’t play your silly hate games—
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
that poor man, she says, he must spend all his time
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
thinking of how he’ll get us—
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
doesn’t he have
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
anything better to do with his life?
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
And what can you do with her, Warner,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
shoot her? Or lock her up? The problem is
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
what’re you gonna do with your self, Warner Stringfellow?
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
Let me leave you with that. What will you be in five years,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
Warner, an Inspector? Like poor stupid Jimmy Fike
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
at the House of Correction? Why don’t you
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
quit playing games, Warner, \& grow up to
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
be a MAN like the rest of us
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
This is the story you wanted me to write
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
about you, Warner, the one you
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
asked me about again last night,
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
\& it’s the best I can do—
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
.
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
I hope you can hear it —
\end{quote}
\begin{quote}
Love all ways
\end{quote}
John Sinclair
Detroit
October 6\textsuperscript{th}, 1966
for Charles’ birthday
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\vfill
\begin{center}
John Sinclair
Poem for Warner Stringfellow
1969
\bigskip
\href{https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/85-august-7-20-1969/poem-for-warner-stringfellow}{\texttt{https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/85-august-7-20-1969/poem-for-warner-stringfellow}}
Fifth Estate \#85, August 7–20, 1969
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\textbf{fifthestate.anarchistlibraries.net}
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