Ron Whitehead, longtime author, editor, outlaw poet, speaker-singer—you name it, is the principal organizer of the upcoming (April Fool’s thru 5th) GonzoFest 2014 in Louisville, KY, a massive extravaganza honoring native son Hunter S. Thompson with every sort of Gonzo activity you can imagine and probably some you cannot. Graphic brother-in-arms Ralph Steadman will be scrambling across the sea to screen his film For No Good Reason.
Among the nearly untold number of things Ron will be doing, seeming to be in four or five places at once, is a performance of his poem “Tapping My Own Phone” with Smoke Town Thursday night April 3rd GonzoFest at The Monkey Wrench and Friday night April 4th GonzoFest with Thomas Asmoth Bellier/The Bone Men at The Ali Center!!! He says, “They’ll be 2 completely different KickASS shows!!! hope to see you ALL there!!!”
With his kind permission, we reprint that poem here and look forward to a growing association with this multitalented artist and others in the Louisville Crew, so we hope someone keeps track of where he lands when the Gonzo parade and circus begin to pack up and filter out to the worlds from whence they came—across the country and the globe—to tell their tales of what went down when the HST mural went up and the “drugs began to take hold.”
Tapping My Own Phone
good morning amerika!!!!
tapping my own phone
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 dead-end 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
copyright (c) 2014 ron whitehead