A few words on anarchist communal decision-making by Assunta Femia (A Sister Species of Crow), O.C.

they're the ones you know.
they're always the ones.
they never do anything
but sit at meetings giggling and disrupting
they push themselves a little too far.
(the chair is getting upset.
  you can tell because there's a crack in one of its legs.
  pity.  same thing would happen to his face if he smiled.).

they're the ones who don't want any leaders.
it's bourgeois not to want leaders, you know.
i think this discussion is middle class.
(no shouting, honey.  they don't want no shouting
  you can't say shit if you don't follow
  robert's rules of middle class order.)

sometimes i wonder if i'mn supposed to have pity
on people.
sometimes while dancing
in the middle of a turn
with one arm raised in the air
i think about that algerian woman
laughing and fighting and laughing
laughing the victory laugh
shaking her flag and laughing
in the face of the french.
all of your correct political organizations.
all your demigod leaders
all your correct line
won't buy you shit
when it's your veil that gets ripped away
and i am the one left standing
laughing

************************
-sister species of crow, o.c.

Yet another poem by Assunta Femia, A Sister Species of Crow, O.C.

oh, medea,
this is no circle of corinthian women
and these people are americans i have been
cast into.
this man is not jason
and these men are not argonauts.
everyone speaks english here
and when something is foreign they say
it's greek to me.
the great mother is greek to them
and our holy afroditi
has become a tacky las vegas showgirl.
i have no children to murder and no euripides
to lie or not to lie about my flight.
in this culture the sacred ones were hunted
for sport or from hatred
and with an alarming regularity
their blood was spilled in unholy rituals
unnatural barbarities perpetrated
by nazi sex kings
who did not know from the scent of lilacs.
the soiled earth.
the stained bed.
oh, medea,
this is no circle of corinthian women.
these people are americans.

*************************
21 may 1983
--sister species of crow, o.c.

Assunta speaks again!

they call it a rest area.
there's a place there marked "men".
it's where the boys go.

i went there once (many times)
not because i enjoyed it
but out of desperation
i was driven to it.
it's what i was reduced to.

they threw me out (the faggots)
i broke the rules.

you have to look like a man
to get fucked
in a place marked "men"
where all the boys go.

--sister species of crow, o.c.

More of Assunta Femia (A Sister Species of Crow), O.C.'s poetry!

this is for me
          for all the times
you ran to your
strate-boy-closet-case-no-balls-boyfriend.
i been seeing things your way
a long time now.
you topped me in no time
falling as i was towards heavy bottom.
taught me that
if i didn't see things your way
i wouldn't see you at all.

this is for me
          for all the times
you would not touch me
for fear of offending
your blessed breeder boy.
self-effacing peasant that i am
i could spit
and still feel rage.

i saw him the other day
that perfectly poisonous prick,
and when i saw that ravaged face
it tore through me
an avalanche of terror
remembering how you
gave him so much that there
was nothing left for her who stood
and waited
knowing full well that they also serve
who stand and wait.

***********************************************
01february 1982
--sister species of crow, o.c.

Another inspirational poem by Assunta Femia, a Sister Species of Crow, O.C.

this poem is dedicated to Billy Russo, without whom it would not have happened.

and so last night i sat there
with this brother at my side
whispering in my ear saying,
you know, they just don't understand
this commitment to poverty.
I just smiled.
i thought, this commitment to poverty
and the complete comprehension caused
not a few tears to be shed in this
powerful political emotion.

the singularity of it all.
both of us from eastern ghettoes
cast into an expanse so wide.
a universe so unending
this western sky
these pacific mountains.

no, these western white kids
don't know from poverty.
wearing their father's cowboy hats
they were born to this fathomless horizon.

looking at them i wonder,
did they spring fully armed
from the thighs of their fathers?

*******************************************
16 january 1983
--sister species of crow, o.c.

This poem, by my Radical Fairy Ancestor, Assunta Femia (Sister Species of Crow) inspires me

oh, dear elias, we meet again

down through- it seems

the twentyfirst century

down through a host of time

this contradiction

thkis elusive and ever present

this holy and daemonic

this dreadful

this sublime

this holy woman

this woman named

holy poverty.


clare said it first -

let the walls of the cloister be

holy poverty herself.


o dear elias,

down through these years

to see your face again, smiling back

at me.  smiling even.

we are not what we own

we are not what we do

we are who

            and what

            and how

we are.


and holy poverty sings her sweet melody

holy poverty of the roses

holy poverty of the bread


this holy contradiction,

this elusive solution.

don't you see, my dear,

this is class warfare on a special scale

this is the holiest.

this is the sacramentum of poverty.

it is no longer even the nun who is speaking.

this is the partaking

the opening of the side.

put your finger in here,

do you now feel this?

is it happening, elias?

do you feel it?


this is what it feels like

this class warfare.
**********************************************************
29 november 1988

sister species of crow

With an hour and a half to spare, my March poem for Antinous!

March

Or: A mup Cosmogony

Or: The Stars Look Like Flowers

Or: Spring Always Makes Me Think Of The Big Bang

Muse: of mauve Beauty (lemniscate's gluing laws),
                         its Illogical Science, sing:
                         "by Effects are their Causes Caused" says wet Nile.

during/after/before both Ananke's jaws
               played pipes (Azathoth, blind ol' thing,
               Beauty's lemniscate-gluing laws did make sleep),

mirror-dark water (empty and full of Bas)
                    rich Black silt it refused to bring:
                    by Effects are their Causes Caused.  here, hot Young

boy.  with Young eyes, Antinous, drunk, withdraws
                           from lov'd Hadrian, doffing bling.
                           Beauty (lemniscate's gluing laws) will dye mauve

toga dark.  seeing concave in river, paused,
                  body bent, and his gaze did fling --
                  by Effects are their Causes Caused -- the wan Nile

(not with sleep's tawdry hollywood lights and flaws)
                        hurled face from reflection's sling.
                        Beauty (lemniscate's gluing laws) from back aft

over aft rail pulled (almost) him down, because
            chiseled face did in ripples swing --
            by Effects are their Causes Caused, so Greek Young

mind to sleep plunged -- quick lust had made him pause,
                     love can paralyze heart with sting
                     Beauty (lemniscate's gluing laws) creates mauve

waters -- Nile (not black anymore) used its claws,
                      dragged boys hands to it, lacking rings:
                      by Effects are their Causes Caused in night's dark

(destined dark), boy in quiet and rapt applause
                         copied hottie from river did wring --
                         Beauty (lemniscate's gluing laws) did act: aft

waters Nile first role-played that ol' Santa Claus:
                  twin blue snakes from its depths did spring --
                  by Effects are their Causes Caused they made Young

World from mauve.  Apsu's named this amidst guffaws
                                Tiamat her own name did string
                                (Beauty, lemniscate's gluing laws) from dreams' sleep

(fossil sleep).  like two candles can share a gauzed
                      flame, in singular peacock's wing
                      are Effects by their Causes Caused -- each twin dark,

joined are mauve.  Queer on Queer are the coups d'etats:
                             Melek Taus is now queen and king --
                             Beauty's lemniscate-gluing laws are gods' aft

waters -- Young World this lineage's efforts Caused --
                           they did shards so pearlescent bring
                           (by Effects are their Causes Caused) to drained Nile,

broken -- Nile, when Blue God said with raucous caws
                        ceased sweet Ananke's shells to fling.
                        Beauty (lemniscate's gluing laws) to death's sleep

Called the Young Os'rantinous, god by clause
                           now -- Harpokrates, quiet, sings:
                           "by Effects are their Causes Caused, so soildark

words hear: aftward, you (while living) have made this Oz
                      by that power of truth which clings:
                      Beauty. lemniscate's gluing laws do flow mauve"

listen, you who attends to Nile's tale, so nutrient-rich dark:

the Bithynian Boy who sleeps now is sure not alone aft:

Beauty's lemniscate-gluing laws: we make everything Young --

by Effects are their Causes Caused -- we shape world from the Night's mauve.