SECTION EIGHT
POETRY PAGE ONE

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COLUMN FORTY-TWO, FEBRUARY 1, 1999
(Copyright © 1999 Al Aronowitz)


(Photo Courtesy Myles Aronowitz)

TAPPING MY OWN PHONE

Date: Sat, 30 Dec 1967 11:01:03 +0000
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com
From: Ron Whitehead
Subject: tapping my own phone

Hello Al! Ron Whitehead here writing from Reykjavik, Iceland where i've set up homebase for me & the literary renaissance for at least 1999. will travel world from here. already working on numerous projects. hope it's not too late for me to send you new poem like you requested. here's Tapping My Own Phone, which is title track for CD which came out '98. have joined group, Voices Without Restraint, with some of Iceland's leading musicians & poets. new CD out late spring. will finish mastering by end february. titled From Louisville to Reykjavik & Beyond. i hope you're surviving holydays & having great time. all blessings to you & happiest new year from Ron Whitehead, the bone man calling the toads.

I'm going straight bought myself a flat top
haircut so stiff I can carry a tray of martinis

waiting on people someone to open up her
purse and give me a tip cause I don't have

a clue anymore as to what's going on but
I do know that I'm one step ahead tapping

my own phone to hear myself talking with
people who used to be my friends listening

so I can correct myself before they do and
I've got a surveillance camera in my abandoned

car across the street watching myself replaying
the tape so I can see if I'm acting funny before

they catch me doing something I shouldn't
like yesterday I spotted myself walking too

fast and I heard myself talking too loud yes
I've got the deep fear paranoia anxiety despair

and suicide blues but I'm making sure I don't
do nothing else wrong cause I done screwed

up so many times I cornered myself into a
backstreet deadend alley of paranoia and every

time I hear an airplane or helicopter or car
door slam I know The Secret Service the FBI

and the IRS Swat Teams have finally arrived
cause I published a poem by the President of

The United States of America without his
fully conscious permission and I'm sure I

haven't paid enough taxes cause I've got no
income yet somehow I keep on doing things

like eating every once in a while and paying
a light bill or two but how do I do it they're

gonna ask what's the source of your income
and how come you don't come to see us

anymore so yes I've become a little jumpy
but I'm staying one step ahead tapping my

own phone videotaping my every move
watching myself day and night replaying

the tapes cause I got a bad bad bad case
of the deep fear paranoia anxiety despair

and suicide blues

Ron Whitehead
12/30/98
Reykjavik, Iceland ##

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