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A Postcard from Calcutta

from Broken Glass Promenade by The StiKman

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about

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.

lyrics

A Postcard from Calcutta

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…
For 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, released July 16, 2014
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 (miRthkon) 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 :
ThestiKman, Wally Scharold Rob Reich, John Brooks,
Robin Reynolds, Craig Dukes

Art Director: The StiKman
Art and Graphics: JoJo Razor

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The StiKman Oakland, California

The StiKman sounds contemporary as the day after tomorrow, iconic as if written into your DNA before history began, and quaint as your grandpa’s favorite song. He is the missing link between Zappa and Beefheart, and the bridge from Charles Ives to Burl Ives. ... more

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