Uniform virility is analgesia,
trigger-happy, all high ranking
desk men of action long on stamina,
Gelignite, hardware, while short on attention.
Historically a gulf intervenes:
Aggregate, aggrieve, aggress-----
Pawnshop patriotism is some tradition
of hocking youth for corporate corrosion
preserved:
Better get more guns. Toilet train the infantry.
Sanctity here is a matter of chessboards,
looking good, covering tracks, a limbo
on the air waves, but only to those who listen.
The expense then is deficits with defense a blurb.
Soft sell. Keep the public frightened or drugged
with creature comforts, diversions.
Honor jargon, labels, censorship.
Find a scapegoat: instant enemy.
Still there is a problem of disposal:
Plastic for the farmer’s plight, topsoil efflorescing,
clumps of dust, or is it flesh?
Irrigate pipes: Bulimia on the newsstands,
protected excess firing back,
backwards...
Oh say can you see-----
Ditch spirit, thwack, thwack,
this refugee half-breathing?
Stephen Mead
Resident artist/curator for The Chroma Museum, artistic renderings of LGBTQI historical figures, organizations and allies predominantly before Stonewall, https://