There is no sweetness
in your sweetbread,
kindness was not
on the menu
Truth’s restraining order
already filed by advertising
Designed to keep
us in the dark,
the very way
we keep our victims
...Happily in compliance,
we draw smiles on the faces
of those whose milk...
and babies…
we stole
So our cartons sell,
so our bellies fill
with the delicious taste
of self-deception
The Laughing Cow
brand spreadables
because having your
babies killed
is hilarious
"Villainy wears many masks, none so dangerous as the mask of virtue."
-Ichabod Crane, in the 1999 film, Sleepy Hollow
America bursts
out of our elementary
school books
with glorious fanfare,
fife and drum,
flag waving in the air,
looking dapper
in a red bow tie,
tails and top hat
or dressed for battle;
red boots, red gloves,
indestructible circular shield
either way,
making sure to highlight
those broad stripes
and bright stars
Stand, we are told,
hand proudly over heart,
pledging blind allegiance
to the virtuous defender
of this land of the free,
this home of the brave,
the amber waves of grain,
the open arms for
the tempest-tossed,
the country, we are told,
God shed his grace upon
Self-proclaimed hero
of our own story-book,
regurgitated repeatedly
into school children’s
unquestioning ears
grooming good little patriots
But with closer inspection,
with the benefit of time,
we came to see the blood
dripping from the shield,
the stolen land
beneath our feet
We learned that what we
“shared with the Indians,”
despite parading our
paper pilgrim hats in the hallway,
was smallpox and
the bullet end of a rifle
Our Captain, America,
was trading slaves
and sewing white hoods
always in the way of progress,
always protecting the patriarchy
Preemptive attacks,
misplaced retaliation,
oil wars and arms deals,
for-profit prisons,
children in cages,
the tempest-tossed
tossed away
Our claim to be
the hero of the story
started to conflict
with the body count
Liberty and justice for all,
but hollow words on a page,
still waiting to be realized
America, the super hero,
revealed to be just another
comic book fantasy
with continuity flaws
Peaceful,
sitting
Peaceful,
swimming
water rippling,
bobber bobbing
hook
baited
hook
piercing
the pull of the line
brings
panic
brings
smiles
brings
suffocation
24 Oct 2020
The beautiful and brutal tapestry of contradictions,
the strong, resinous scent of burning pine pitch,
a state of ecstasy almost tangible,
a poignant sense of peacefulness
off the tips of the leaves,
low demonic growls,
eyes staring through the roof,
the defenseless dead
Found poem. All lines are direct quotes from pages 337 and 338 of Louise Erdrich’s novel, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
22 Oct 2020
Mr. President, a question
I’d like to pursue,
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
Every time your mouth opens
the words are untrue,
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
At the victims of a hurricane,
paper towels you threw,
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
Seventy thousand dollars
for the hairstyle of a cockatoo?
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
Twenty-six sexual allegations,
you claim all are untrue,
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
While “grab ‘em by the pussy”
is what you do,
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
On Hurricane Dorian’s map,
with a sharpie you drew,
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
“In my great and unmatched wisdom”
your mouth did spew,
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
Racial diversity training
you try to subdue,
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
You mocked the disabled,
so I ask anew,
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
Windmill noise causes cancer,
Believe me, it’s true,
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
If she wasn’t my daughter,
we’d probably screw,
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
Liberate Michigan!
Let the violence ensue,
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
Rake your forests
to keep fires from coming through,
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
Bleach injections
will make you feel brand new,
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
Stand by, Proud Boys,
wait for my cue,
What the fuck
is wrong with you??
The only question
I have hitherto
is What the fuck
is wrong with you??
I hope we can scrape
from the office the residue
of whatever the fuck
was wrong with you
16 Oct 2020
Salt was the price
for his captured life,
this Congolese man
in slave trader hands
Ota Benga
In nineteen oh four
brought to these shores,
so others could stare
at the St. Louis World’s Fair
Ota Benga
Just another addition
to their living exhibition
Ota Benga
“Savages” on display,
never mind their dismay
Step up for your view
of our human zoo
and see those like
Ota Benga
In just two years’ time
in the Bronx Zoo we find
Ota Benga
For your entertainment today,
A human being on display,
Come turn your gaze
to a man in a cage,
Ota Benga
To gloat superiority, self-proclaimed,
over someone so “untamed,”
twice as many would now go
to see their “freak” in the show,
Ota Benga
At the primate house,
bones scattered about
to create the illusion
of a cannibalistic conclusion
to the eating habits of
Ota Benga
Evolution’s missing link,
they claimed with a wink,
Ota Benga
The crowd poked and they jeered,
their manner cavalier
as they laughed at the sight of
Ota Benga
As protests were groaned,
“It is absurd to make moan
over the imagined humiliation
and (the supposed) degradation,”
The New York Times did wail,
“very low in the human scale”
they ranked
Ota Benga
When the Zoo’s history we impart
this will be our “most amusing” part,
the Zoo director said of the caged
Ota Benga
When finally free,
homeward bound he would be,
Ota Benga
But his return hopes would unravel
with the cessation of passenger ship travel
World War I had begun,
so he came upon a gun
Ota Benga
A life forced, undesired,
No crowd would see when he fired
the bullet into his heart,
Ota Benga
A segregated, unmarked grave
No one bothered to say
that here lies
Ota Benga
In a country that still
whitewashes its ills,
our hands are stained
with the blood of
Ota Benga
2 Oct 2020
Thanks to Rob Huber for suggesting I explore human zoos as a possibility for a poem. The resources I used:
The Man Who Was Caged in a Zoo - The Guardian
Human Zoos: America's Forgotten History of Scientific Racism
Spectacle - One on One interview with Pamela Newark
The Tragic Life of Ota Benga - YouTube
CBC - Human Zoos: A Shocking History of Shame and Exploitation
