"Bats Have No Bankers And They Do Not Drink" (John Berryman)

Dream Song 63:

"Bats Have No Bankers And They Do Not Drink"

(John Berryman)

Bats have no bankers and they do not drink

and cannot be arrested and pay no tax

and, in general, bats have it made.

Henry for joining the human race is bats,

known to be so, by few them who think,

out of the cave.

Instead of the cave! ah lovely-chilly, dark,

ur-moist his cousins hang in hundreds or swerve

with personal radar,

crisisless, kid. Instead of the cave? I serve,

inside, my blind term. Filthy four-foot lights

reflect on the whites of our eyes.

He then salutes for sixty years of it

just now a one of valor and insights,

a theatrical man,

O scholar & Legionnaire who as quickly might

have killed as cast you. Olé. Stormed with years

he tranquil commands and appears.

"Henry does resemble me, and I resemble Henry; but on the other hand I am not Henry. You know, I pay income tax; Henry pays no income tax. And bats come over and they stall in my hair — and fuck them, I'm not Henry; Henry doesn't have any bats." (John Berryman, 1914-1972).