An Awful Poem About A Groovy Poet Named ... Frances Steerling

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We were at the Night Owl Cafe 
in Greenwich Village

It was Saturday Poetry Night

and we were still in high school

It was May 2, 1967 

and numerous

hirsute non-entities,

commonly known as hippies, 
spouted jibberish

from the stage but we waited patiently

for the guest poet from Boston:

Frances Steerling

He was revered by those of us 

who needed to revere someone

in the absence of Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, 
the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Etceteras...

However, this was the last poem

most of my high school buddies
 heard Frances Steerling
read in public:  

We'll do what we want

when we want

and we won't

get caught

Shoplifting is easier

on the wallet

than things that

must be bought

Let them try but

Never will they

take us alive

Clamped to

an office

from nine

to five

Let them try

to come and get us

They might as well

zip-lock lettuce.

Frances Steerling was the son

of a Dow Chemical scientist

What "we" Night Owls had witnessed in 1967

was the first usage of the phrase zip-lock 
but Frances coigned words and phrases
as often as some people sneeze

When the father was told
the son said zip-lock,

the boy was hired
by the company

as a "phraseologist"

Frances Steerling made
oodles of money
and financed the infamous
Long Beach Underground
Poetry Center  

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Footnote
AN AWFUL POEM ABOUT A GROOVY POET
NAMED ... FRANCES STEERLING
is the copyrighted property of LCSoL
and Frances Steerling

The next
GoFather/Frances Steerling
page is
here
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