OH AMSTERDAMMERS ! OH AMSTERDAMMERS ! by Lee Bridges

OH AMSTERDAMMERS ! OH AMSTERDAMMERS !
by Lee Bridges

Oh Amsterdammers! Oh Amsterdammers!
what unhardened look and steady eye
voices thundering with honesty
handshakes warm as charcoal fire
why you’re really brotherly
But stop
right now
before you slap my back
and grin
because I swear by all the
ghouls of hades
your manners
are as bad as sin

Oh Amsterdammers! Oh Amsterdammers!
strolling along a tree-lined street
or water centered you call gracht
makes no difference who I am
at almost any huis (house)
I stop
I’m welcome to share what you’ve
got
inside you do the most
to make me happy and at ease
but names remain anonymous
ignorant I take my leave

Oh Amsterdammers! Oh Amsterdammers!
champions of drinking & smoking cafés
comrades in hashish weed and cognac
laughter rings out clean and gay
but damn it learn how to act
of course
I know
you don’t mean any harm
but sides are still aching
from your elbows and arms
Lord I hope it isn’t so
but I bet your foot has
broken many a toe

Oh Amsterdammers ! Oh Amsterdammers !
one more thing and I’ll give this up
why in the hell do you always
put sugar in my tea and
coffee cup
and this is the first time
that I have ever seen
bread offered
saturated
with butter and
margarine
and when I take the tram
slam bam
... damn

Oh Amsterdammers ! Oh Amsterdammers !
I have no wish to criticise
and I shall not apologize
but
of all the peoples of Europe
whom I like so much
I have none more friendly
than the Dutch

Oh Amsterdammers ! Oh Amsterdammers !
Nor with manners
as such

 

I love the Dutch, and Amsterdam especially. I also lived in the south one summer. 10 years in the Netherlands!

This poem was written quite a long time ago, perhaps in the 1970s.

 

The Cannabis Poet was remarkable, when I met him a real gentleman wearing a suit and tie always. He traveled the world smuggling hashish and playing jazz, he loved the way he was treated as a human being while overseas.

In the US he was treated badly, being a black man from the South.

 

One of my sisters used to work at the EggCream cafe in Amsterdam in the late 1970s. She told me about people who would go a fruit salad diet and get fed up of it after a week.
When I visited Amsterdam in 1980 another one of my sister's boyfriend took me the Texas Steak House. It was owned by a couple of American guys. The mainstay of the business appeared to be local beer, not American beer or food. I ordered steak & french fries. It was served on a wooden chopping board and the french fries still were unpeeled. Quite nice though. I was the only person eating. The place was busy.The customers were roughly 50% Scots and 50% Americans. Coming from the UK I was the odd one out.