Tag Archives: satire

KANSAS GEORGE AND THE FLYING MONKEY

KANSAS GEORGE AND
THE FLYING MONKEY

Hello George
I am
also
   George

funny about that
isn’t it
    George

people might call it
a coincidence
but there
   are no
coincidences

where are
          we George?

are you the blue fairy?
are we
    both red fairies?
are we
   the munchkins
are we
     in Kansas, in Oz
somewhere in the 60s
down
     in Hait-Ashbury

carefree
    and happy
enjoying
a summer of love

now
   don’t go
wicked witch on me George
fall on that
ball all
serious

go total
flying monkey

jumping on that ball
as if it is not
all
   just a game.

WON

WON

we came for the big game

met on the intersection
of Meridian and
          Equator

we sat for the battle

you
waited in awe

they remained standard
first,
      before a piece touched

they insisted on rule changes
make the game more equitable
in other words
      their game more powerful

bishops
       and knights

should be made invulnerable
echoing their
feudal
      reputation
(“especially the white squared one”:
someone chirping
       from the corner)

and then
       it had to go, whole en passant rule
as unnecessary compromising
defences

and when
     Kings castle on the back rank

strength of rook
alongside be
                  doubled from
five to
      ten

to echo their supreme
nuclear strength

we came for the game
                 whole world watching

what
    a shock it was
           the day we won

ENTIRE

ENTIRE

you have clocked us
and cluedoed us
and played
every
   game
with us

to see the world
through photoshopped eyes

to switch on that strobe light
good for interrogations

but not for
viewing from a divine perspective

all you have dehumanized
stripped of humanity
millions of God’s image

murdered
each, as your great book says,
a Universe entire

AND VANITY PRESS

AND VANITY PRESS

I am
all about death

and vanity
press

this i
(readily) confess
to
     both

    woman
and
       God

the chimes
in my head
            both essence
of poetry
but also
   cash register

and so I write
of holocaust and genocide
things that
        lately delight

if not
    why so tiny effort, huge
reluctance

to stop
    doing so?

the sound effects of
slaughter

    so much
one can do with them

GIMME

GIMME

world’s
falling apart

little children
getting blown
to
   smithereens

so gimme that
sweet false consciousness
that would come
with a
    SuperBowl victory

don’t let Mahomes
spoil everything
with
    an insane overtime
charge

this after Kyle left
his best laid plans
in a briefcase
in the
    locker room

this is not
   the script I want,
I need

so write me a new one
bring me that
thick syrupy delusion
that a Niners’
Vegas victory
          would bring

the world falling apart
                         bits
of little
children

how come I always get
             caught this way

how come
I’m not
         so smart
                   

LINE

LINE

you drew a line

said this is
the law, the rule,
the commandment,
the ordinance,
the regulation

suddenly
      no sooner had
you signed off
than the line curved
bent multiplied
wriggled all
over
    the page
my page

not yours;
on your still a single line
plain as day

cutting across the page
East to West
right to
         left

dividing everything
North South
               into two
unequal
hemispheres

you drew a line
for all time


FAR FROM IT

FAR FROM IT

far from it,
we did not
get rid
of them

as vicious and
insufferable
as they had become

we just let them
fade into nothing
embrace
    non-being

going nowhere
we simply allowed them
to reach
   that destination

perhaps ushering them
a little
    but it was for
their own good

genocide?
    no that is their
much contested term
and yet
habitual practice

such actions
          lie beyond us
this word
not in
our vocabulary

but see
     look here

admire
what we have done with
the planet
       how we have integrated
everything, biological
and technological
organic
   and machine

everything flourishing,
renewable and recyclable

this
    our mandate terrestrial
and cosmic
in equal aesthetic and
intellectual measure

ours
   is the new spirituality
to take
   across the galaxy

theirs a
     contempt for themselves,
the sacredness of being
and life
        of every living thing