Poetry Corner

Today’s poem comes from Henry Rollins. I first came across this poem in Spin Magazine in the mid-to-late 80’s. I believe that he was still with Black Flag at the time. I have no idea what made me think of it the other day, but the beauty of the internet is that you can Google “Henry Rollins Madonna Poem” and it up it comes. Love that. I find myself, years later, inexplicably never having seen Henry Rollins spoken word act. Go figure. Enjoy.

Madonna by Henry Rollins

Madonna -
she makes me want to drink
beer, she makes me want to drive fast
and go bowling, she makes me want to
shop at Sears, she makes me want to
kick vegetarians. When I hear her
sing, I know she’s singing to me, she
wants to get nasty with me. When I see
her face, when I see her eyes, when I
see her lips
talking to me
telling me to come on,
I get to feeling mean
I get to feeling like
I wanna do a whole lot of pushups
or go to a hardware store.
Then I have to cool down, I
gotta cool down.
It’s either gonna be:
a cold shower, or a Bruce Springsteen
record.