Primus

“Decorative Graveyard” by Christopher Stead

 

grabbing mendicants by their humility
you fling them insouciant like ragdolls aside
smacking down the least threatening talent
that so much as lifts up a competent hand
your swaggering insensate skin undeterred
clears a fat assed man’s path for your greatness
to wrangle the rainbows and sunbeams
in sheaves of light holstered alongside
your chariot glowing like warrior’s fasces
enarmed with your monogramed blades

swelled pride for your bootstraps and ladder rung toes
leaves no space in your heartscape for mercy or care
loveless journeys enable your conquering ways
and your raising up castles of unpeopled gloom
in each land where you crowned yourself king
but unable to see either people who hate
or dismiss you as tinhorn nonentity
you never quite realize that no other people exist
or that you will leave only one mark on the world
the unadorned print of your much pissed on grave