gadfly in the topical ointment...

Illustration by Edmund Sullivan from Thomas Carlyle’s novel ‘Sartor Resartus’ 

gadfly in the topical ointment: maps, long cons, causes and clauses

all of the Americas were originally calculated to be bled out

(resource beautiful wombs, sacrifice, hollow loom revision-istas)

(statler and waldorf are screaming "fuck ye

christmas gentle things" from a balcony)

oh ye singing trees trimmed with modernity

why are we hanging onto our knees

why do we invoke base survival instincts

why do we assuage our fears

and insecurities toward caged comfortably safe

why do we run the risk of devolving

into endless cycles

of soulful in-articulations

mechanical anamorphic means

squeezing the lights wrapped hazily

ill-fittingly stretching shadows over bones

rust and decay disguised afterbirth

and root cellars call the names

what strange fruit remains

history is hainted to memories

by way of permanence and stain

staging truth and archetype

by torture is never necessary

for elegantly expressing

our humanity

guns and people kill

accidentally or otherwise intended

consequence depends on placement

parchment, secular and clerical divide

uptown to downtown, suburbia's coming home again

working the laws on both sides

usually it is immaterial

gathered providence

black robes and white wings

skin cell pigmentation means

cover most things that give away

target acquisition scars

strangers will always be

a danger and endangered here

my hands are up

and I can't breathe

Santa can be construed as Satan

so don't shoot me please

just give me another drink

this poet's staying drunk 'til Spring

EJR ©