Lyr Req: Dreamland's Topsy

09 Mar 06 - 08:20 AM (#1689101)
Subject: Lyr Req: Dreamland's Topsy
From: SINSULL

I came across a poem a few years back about Topsy, the elephant electrocuted by Thomas Edison at Dreamland Park. Naturally I have lost it. Does anyone know it?
Thanks,
SINS

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09 Mar 06 - 10:50 PM (#1689729)
Subject: ADDPOP: You, Coney Island (Allen Shadow)
From: Joe Offer

This one (click), Sins???
-Joe-

You, Coney Island
Words and music by Allen Shadow

And what was the world then
newly teased with incandescence
in the restless morning
of the new century
looking up from the mechanical day
to the dream lights
at the Brooklyn shore
to you, Coney Island
of painted alleys and desire
of fire and crude fortune
to you, Coney Island
of sword swallowers
and dummied moons
of the Blue Man
and the Wonder Wheel
Madame Twisto
and the Mule-Faced Boy
you, Coney Island
for the wanting of girls
from dark rooms and summer stoops
you, Coney Island
for women with dish cloths
at the window
wishing away the sound of the trolley
and the eating machines
singing to the coarse radio
before the Hitler-carved world

Chorus
When Topsy the Elephant
killed three men
it took Thomas Edison
and all the juice of Dreamland
to bring her down

And what was Freud musing
the summer of '09
there at the snake tongue
of Dreamland
the captain maybe
awed before his prized commission
imagination now monster
with legs and lipstick full
what was he thinking halted there
before the klieg lights of temptation
the Man from Borneo
and the Siamese Sisters
before the felt and paste heaven
and the all-mechanical hell
before the electric clowns
and the Chute-the-Chute
tossing lovers into odorous proximity
clenched thighs thrown open
the accidental crotch of animal desire
pitched facewise in the hot dog air

And we would ride of a Sunday
down the West Side Highway
of the 1950's
after the coming of the Jersey lawns
and the pixelated opiate
of Zenith and Disney
me pressed into the front seat
of the ship-like Dodge
and strain to see finally
the sky-sudden Parachute Jump
and closing my eyes
in the windshield sun
could taste
the aqua-smoked boardwalk
the mermaids consorting
in coral splendor
above pitchmen
with nickel smeared aprons
and the penny lament
of mechanical gypsies
and the distant whip
of children flung longward
at the sea's stinging kiss

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10 Mar 06 - 08:51 AM (#1689950)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dreamland's Topsy
From: SINSULL

Not it, Joe but thank you. This is good though.
M.

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10 Mar 06 - 08:52 AM (#1689952)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dreamland's Topsy
From: SINSULL

The one I am looking for starts with a line about searing burning pain - refers to the cigarette.

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