When war is outlawed
We will change the words
To ensure we maintain our profit margins
To Keep the Bombs Bursting in Air
To Keep the blood money flowing
To Keep the violence normal
We’ll spend some of the money
We make off of you
And the little people who will die
To hire professional soldiers
to kill more people
to make more money
and maybe kill you
We will ignore the righteous officials
Elected to get in the way
Of our Plan for You
And the little people who will die
Anyway
We’re just making it easier for them
And it’s easier for us, now, too
The next time they blame you
remind them you’re not
the only one living in there
when they show their fury
assure them you’ll be leaving soon
and that thing they call your body
is just a place you were visiting temporarily
and not by choice
when they call you a scoundrel
thank them with rose water
and pomegranate tea
tell them its all just a bad translation
from Arabic to English
when they call you hypocrite
insist your brain and heart
don’t talk to each other anymore
due to an irreconcilable past
and though your mouth
tends towards neutrality
you make this occasion
to assuage them
before you constrict your talons
around their necks
by Loud Sue
Before you go into battle
Learn thy enemy
Sneak into their home
When they are pillaging elsewhere
Play their musical instruments
Eat from the sauce jar in the fridge
Maybe date their wives and/or husbands
Take their children to the park
Let them go on the rides their parents’ won’t
You will be their hero
As you go into battle
Study thy enemy
Learn their
Idiosyncratic Behavior Patterns
So you can mirror them
To point out the only truth
Anyone ever needs to know
Practice their tone and inflection
So they can identify themselves
In you
While they are bashing in your skull
From afar
When you are in battle
Be thy enemy
Invite them into your camp
To sip tea and
Elucidate strategies of
How you will meticulously
Rip each other to pieces
Limb by limb
Smoke a few cigarettes
While you take walks together along the trenches
Share pastries that define your heritage
Before you eat out each other’s mouths
Tell yourselves how
The families are
You’ve enjoyed in each other’s absence
Much earlier in the long day passing
Recount the same memories you’ve never shared
Till you realize the only war you’re in
Is your struggle with time
And how to live and love correctly
Kiss each other goodbye
And turn out the lights
(2012)
one last embrace you wanted
the touch from the living loved
too afraid you would take them with you
some peace from the white coats
ripping your body open
sticking this in which does not belong
taking that out to kill you
septic room of confused souls
numbed since birth to miss the point
and you, suffering, forced to listen
shrill penetration of petty problems
deaf to your silent pleas
tired, wasted, insensate
you begged for death
until the moment she came
(2012)
This fine silk thread
borrowed from an orb weaver
I will use for your hair
so the sun’s light refracts full spectrum
casting color on the shadows etched into the walls
reservoir of my cobra heart
docile till you come near
These stones
rolled smooth by river’s torrent
and ocean’s tide
will fit into the sockets where your eyes
once watched this dramedy unfold
These conchs will be your ears
mounted upon an urchin
that will pose as your head
inside, for your brain
I shall ejaculate my semen
so your thoughts will be productive
your lips will be made of reeds
stretched across your face
dried after a devastating winter
and your nose crafted from the girders
of a fallen skyscraper
so you can smell trouble
as far as your stones can see
For your tongue
I will sew in the swatches of fabric
you selected for curtains
to block out our view
of the neighbors spying
our creation
your torso
will be fashioned from the tupelo
whose seed blew into our nest
by monsoon winds who knew
where to find us
planted on the grounds our first child was conceived
carved with cat’s claw in exquisite detail
to replicate your topography
When he dies
your arms will be the wings of the heron
born orphan for whom
you regurgitated carp, bass, eel and blue-gill
with those you can satellite the orb
and keep tabs on me
I will steal
the legs of a race horse
as she crosses the finish line
You will have the strength
and speed
to do our shopping
and the horse who died for you
will be exploited no more
For your heart
I transplant this punching bag
to absorb the shock of my dragon strikes
you shall need to resuscitate you frequently
as you transcend the Red Land
Two balloons
sent to you while
you lay on your death bed
will be your lungs,
this way we are spared the cost
of more balloons
lest you catch another chance at death
your stomach
will be the camping grill
we bought and never used
you can cook your own food now
and won’t have to eat it
had you stayed around a little longer
you might have had the chance to chew
The rest of your organs
will be junk
from the attic, the garage
the closets, the basement and the shed
Spare parts to carry out the functions
we never think about anyway
I will stuff them
into your Tupelo trunk in no particular order
packed tight
to keep your tree from rattling
but careful not to
puncture your balloon lungs
compress your punching bag heart
douse the embers of your built in BBQ
or constrict the flow of your sap
that occasionally seeps
through little cracks in your bark
and which I collect to sweeten
the herbs I planted
as pubes for tea
This grotesque ensemble
I will seat by the fireplace
on very cold days
On warmer days
I will mount you, erect,
on the roof
to interfere with gamma rays from distant stars
and to fuck with everyone’s cell reception
I will take you
for rides on my ghost-drawn cart
so your stones can see
the progress humans have made
this decade past
this decade lost
trying to put you
back together again