Ghetto Defendant

Ghetto Defendant
 (by  Allen Ginsberg)



Starved in metropolis
Hooked on necropolis
Addict of metropolis
Do the worm on Acropolis
Slamdance cosmopolis
Enlighten the populace

Hungry darkness of living
Who will thirst in the pit?
Hooked in necropolis
She spent a lifetime deciding
How to run from it
Addicts of metropolis
Once fate had a witness
And the years seemed like friends
Girlfriends
Now her child has a dream
But it begins like it ends
Shot in eternity
Methadone kitty
Iron serenity

CHORUS
Ghetto defendant
It is heroin pity
Not tear gas nor baton charge
That stops you taking the city

Strung out committee
Walled out of the city
Clubbed down from uptown
Sprayed pest from the nest
Run out to barrio town
The guards are itchy
Forced to watch at the feast
Then sweep up the night
Flipped pieces of coin
Broken bottles
Exchanged for birthright
Grafted in a jiffy

Ghetto defendant
It is heroin pity
Strung out committee
Not tear gas nor baton charge
That stops you taking the city
Not sitting pretty
Heroin pity
Grafted in a jiffy

The ghetto prince of gutter poets
Was bounced out of the room
Jean arthur rimbaud
By the bodyguards of greed
For disturbing the tomb
1873
his words like flamethrowers
Paris commune
Burnt the ghettos in their chests
His face painted whiter
Then he was laid to rest
Died in marseille
Ghetto defendant
Buried in charleville
It is heroin pity
Not tear gas nor baton charge
That stops you taking the city
Shut up in eternity

Guatemala
Honduras
Poland
100 years war
TV re-run invasion
Death squad Salvador
Afghanistan Meditation
Old Chinese flu
Kick junk, what else
Can a poor worker do?

Rat Patrol version lyrics
As above, except:

Starved in megalopolis
Hooked on necropolis etc
And:
Once fate had a witness
And the years seemed like friends
Girlfriends
Her babies can dream
But dreams begin like they end
Final verse not on Combat Rock version:


Soap floods oil in water
All churn in the wake
Ocean of time
On the great ship of progress
The crew can't find the brake
Anchor drag
Klaxons are blaring
The admiral snores command
And dreams
Submarines boil in oceans
While the armies fight with suns
Ghetto defendant
Iron Serenity
It is heroin pity
Shot up in eternity
Not tear gas nor baton charge
Strung out committee
That stops you taking the city
Senator witty.

















(Music; The Clash)