The Opinuary Column

SCOWL
(with apologies to allen ginsberg)

i saw the worst brains of new segregation mangled by
stinking badges, carving rivulets into bankers
lugging their fears through the cactus heat
waving snake money at the rodents assembled on the polymorphic rocks
mottled rangers in masks fomenting wars against the purpling sky
a paradise of discounted schemers hawking their wares
of white dragoons lugging chests of limbs to market
who open carry metal monsters with sneering bullet hats
slow desert waltzes in cheap lager urine slaughter
hideous rivers of piss and blood cascading in the theme parks
rusting foam infecting magazine women eating cartoon crabs
who leaked their stains in denim beneath the whitest cirrus tents
who saw migrant hordes killed by god on corporate tombstones
keeping their heads down below the vaporizing radar
in death your papers please

blue bankers batting leverage leading leagues of dust
the rank and file profits escalating in ether
second nature birthing babies whose teeth are dice
throwing sixes and suckling breasts in infinite friday nights
what nonsense senses anon will be incensed senseless yet
where are they: in the corporation
where are they: in the accounts deceivable
where are they: in the iron markets shooting guns at jesus
where are they: in the steam of sinking islands
where are they: in the folds of lurid priests
where are they: in the braying of spring
where are they: in the aftertaste
where are they: in the acid wash
where are they: in the name of whereness
where are they:

the iron gates go higher in the milky way development
we must protect the avalanche from the bodies
speak nothing and forever hold your past
in huddled mirthless hospice the corpse-to-be convulses
as doctors discuss the diameter of wealth
of how tumors can be traded for fun and profit
or if one shaved off the cancer and held aloft the meat
the hawkers make a carnival of the rotting mirth
the new dawn of man the babe of mass and death
grown to carry bullets to the feast
the soldier as an appetizer, like cats devoured whole
we strangle in our throats the cause of our demise
and weightless acrobats scurry into eden like spiders
bouncing and leaping and shredding pyramids of flesh
crawling to the mountain of the word
into the river of the triumphant nightmare
a thousand years of a thousand years and then what
begetting rockets aimed at children turned to hash
smoking them in the skull of the messiah

the pregnant aztec clouds conspire in the vapors lust for release
return to sender in the serpent streams and hollows
tender on the rocks spurting poisons from the city
escaping criminals ride the waves like jockeys
back back back to the soccer fields and skate parks
swimming pools luxury boxes chlorine daughters imploring daddy
their eyes the latest texture of the horse
we are hinged in hidden ways, the doors swing wider
the wires approximate the thunder, grab the boys
they grow towards the ideal feasting on clotted sorrow
wrenched upwards to the market spiral
ascending angels selling death short and making a killing
the abstract after-markets shoot lasers for fun and profit
burning every dream but one

we went to the gulf and burned the birds in homage to god
we went to africa and brought chains to the dead
we went to the desert and dared god to stop us
we went to the poppy fields and died without eyes
we went to the moon and planted explosives
we went to the past and made lawyers out of skin
we went to live on the islands of trash
we went to feast on the blood of the savior during happy hour
we went to the good earth and planted abominations
we went to donate our organs and stole the bones
we went to the pipe and inhaled dust and tore our faces off
we went into the bars and put our brains in blenders
we went before the people as the insects crawled out of our speech
we went down on our knees and saw the blade's reflection
we went everywhere the infection could go
we went until the cure destroyed us

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words and image by mjs

The Opinuary Column appears most Fridays at Jesus' General.

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