A Postcard from Calcutta

“A Postcard from Calcutta” is from my opera based on: “The Flounder” by Günter Grass. Why not a poem about a pile of shit that god dropped named Calcutta. How it swarms, stinks, lives and gets bigger and bigger.

A Postcard from Calcutta – Lyrics
Don’t look
Step across
Stop your ears with lead
Practice glassy-eyed indifference
Leave pity in your suitcase
with your shoes and socks…
Or look—
Stop
Listen
Feel moved and ashamed
Show your red tongue
because pity is small change
and easily dispensed…

How
where horror should cast us in lead
How
can I laugh?
Even at breakfast, laugh
How
where garbage and only garbage grows
how
am I to speak of Ilsebill
because she is beautiful
and speak of beauty
How?

Where the hand in the photo
remains forever riceless
How shall I sing about the cook
and how she stuffs fattened geese?

The sated are going on a hunger strike,
o beautiful garbage
It’s enough to make you die laughing

I’m trying to find a word
I’m trying to find a word
I’m trying to find a word
for

shame
shame
shame…

Write a poem
about Calcutta
Write with pus
Rip off scabs
In Calcutta
encoffined in mosquito-netting
dream of Calcutta
Get lost
in Calcutta
Transfer the U.N.
to Calcutta
On an uninhabited island
write a book
about Calcutta
At a party
call Calcutta
an example
of something

Chop off your cock
(in the temple of Kali
a tree is hung
with wishing stones
that cry out for children
more and more children)

Misbehaved children
women like Ilsebill
who are never satisfied
and men who live for schedules—
curse them
wish them all
in Calcutta

Credits
from Broken Glass Promenade, track released 15 June 2012

Track Credits
Composed by The StiKman with lyrics by and/or inspired by Günter Grass
Produced by The StiKman
Production consultant: Nicholas Dobson
Engineered by The StiKman
Mixed by The StiKman

The StiKman: Vocals and Sound Design
Wally Scharold: Guitar and Vocals
Rob Reich: Guitar
John Brooks: Bass Guitar
Robin Reynolds: Cello and Vocals
Cynthia Taylor: Vocals
Nicolas Dobson: Vocals
JoJo Razor: Vocals
Craig Dukes: Trap Drums

Basic tracks performed with My Hero :
The StiKman, Wally Scharold, Rob Reich, John Brooks, Robin Reynolds, Craig Dukes

How? – The StiKman with Wally (MirthKon) Scharold

Jumping

Craiggy

Cynthia Taylor puts us all to shame, shame shame!