Tag Archives: truth to power

DANTE

DANTE

and there
at the very centre
of Hell

we find
Dante

tortured for eternity
for libelling those
above his
station

the justice perfect
the irony beautiful

everything in accord
for one whose wicked faith
could not
comprehend

that the Universe
has its golden favourites
who
   should always
be worshipped, venerated
by those for whom
they are
their betters

the writers
of the law
always
above and beyond the law

on this angel and devil
could
    not be more
united

it is
their common understanding,
their jealously
shared faith

WHICH IT DOES

WHICH IT DOES

thought I would
become the kind
of poet

who owns
a coffee shop
sits quietly
drinking milky
cappucino after
milky cappucino

observing the customers
penning interminable odes
tiny haiku

seeming, to the casual observer,
part of the furniture,
at one with the decor
thing
of the arts
with aristocratic veneer

not viciously satirical
exponent of anarchism
defender of Gaza
taking on
all comers as
if the world depends
on it
which it does

I have developed a cottage
industry
revolutionary practice
out of this mistaken identity

WHY?

WHY?

why beat the shit
out of them?

surely
with your massive
military industrial complex

your have
more refined, tech-
savvy solutions

or because
since universities began
in medieval Arabia
and Europe must
you go dark
ages on them
besiege these encampments
like you are Temujin’s
horde

ransacking for forage
throwing defenders
down the battlements
all to
    show and
tell lesson them
how Plato’s children
and great grandchildren
should scholastically behave

FOR THE RECORD

FOR THE RECORD

won’t pretend
to be on the right
side of history

too old now
to make a diffetence
or for anyone
to care
whose side I’m on

for the record,
I support your protests
for justice, freedom and
against this
horrendous
suffering inflicted
on human beings; love
your expression
of humanity

this for the record but
realize my old world
the world
    that assaults you, maligns
you

is now
beyond the pale;
has outlived its purpose
(did it serve
any purpose?)
has outstayed its welcone

so when
   (act of mercy) wheel me
over a cliff down
into the ocean in
my wheelchair
best bundle up this old
dead corrupt world
with me
wheel it over as well

WARLIKE

WARLIKE

 “Let me tell you something – black folks was never worried about anthrax because, half the time, we don’t open our mail no way. We might think that’s a bill. We might hold it to the light and go, ‘That’s a red slip.’ If you want to get us with anthrax, put that in a Jay-Z CD. That’s how you get us.” Aries Spears

Warlike, Aristophanes
stalks the streets
with pins
for the pompous

floats overhead
in a diigible

turning all
into buffoons

Oh, what a scourge!
did Zeus with his bolts
ever out-thunder
that laughter

crazy Dionysus
whose stage it is
must be deliriously amused

Apollo
    less so

forks in the road
facists being told
strictly to observe
total radio silence

a deus ex machine looking
like it
    could not
possibly fly

                and yet
every one fears it

Aristophanes
Aristophanes

what kind of a name is that
for such a ruthless comedian?

come to think of it,
what kind of a name for a comic
is Aries Spears?

THANKS

THANKS

thanks for protecting me
against evils known and
unknown

possible abd impossible

real
and imagined

and even
imagined-imagined

thank you for protecting me
from my self, all my
avatars and handles

thanks thanks thanks thanks
thanks
             but no thanks

I’m too useless, uneducated, over-educated, uninformed,
misinformed, disinformed,
to know
anything anyway

do what i am
supposed

do what
is required

follow the plan
execute nicely and neatly
alomg the dotted line
tick my tock tick
the right box

be the perfecr customary
idiot you can package
in brown paper

send off to
         war (just saying, just
saying!)

prime human material
ready to be exploited

smothered
      in your love

suffocated
with affection

and now technology
world of
        science fiction horror

alien
event horizon

thanks
     but no thanks
thank you for protecting me
from it

must say this
demonic technology

was only
       a pleasure, a joy
in this shit life you
         do manufacture

milliobs of us
zillions of us
         having fun, being
creatuve
feeling the same way

not feeling all
that mind control, becoming
other, changing shape
changing form
as our world turned pink
and then red
and then,
    as that poison did its work,
complete Chinese
Communist Party

wonder what
     we can do
now its gone, Devil
loving hands
                  idle

need a new vehicle to
go same-same to
ridicule this nonsense
throw
   your democracy
back at you

mock, scoff, laugh, sing,
dance, ridicule

tell a little
needle sharp truth
to ridiculous power