(SUNY Buffalo, 1972)

Norman Norman Norman Mailer
Bellows from the podium
He will give five bucks
To the very first feminist
Who's got the balls, who's got the pluck
To get up from her seat in the audience
And storm the barricade.

One young woman calls his bluff
Marches up and stands before him
Puts her hand out for the cash.
"Pay up," she says, but he ignores her.
Norman Norman Norman Mailer
Promised he'd give, but does not give her
That five-dollar bill.

Norman Norman Norman Mailer
Says, for sitting on his face,
He prefers Pat Nixon
(a gal who knows her place)
To that Germaine Greer.
How he swaggers!  How he boasts
He'll "give it" to Gore Vidal, that queer.

"If you give it to Gore like you gave it to me,"
Shouts that same young woman
With her hand out again
"He's got nothing to fear."
Not even a ten-spot, just a fiver...
Norman Norman Norman Mailer
Promises to give, but fails to deliver.

Peggy Landsman grew up near New York City and always spent a lot of time there. The first poetry reading she ever took part in was at St. Mark's Church in the Bowery. Her writing has appeared in both online and print publications, including Breathe: 101 Contemporary Odes (C&R Press), Iodine Poetry Journal, The Muse Strikes Back (Story Line Press), and Spindle. Her poetry chapbook, To-wit To-woo, is available from FootHills Publishing. She has also published a contemporary romance novel, Passion's Professor (Midnight Showcase), under the pen name, Samantha Rhodes.

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Keywords : Feminism, LGBT,

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