Anarchy

“Funeral of the Anarchist Galli” by Carlo Carra

 

burn your unfingered tenets
in congressional ashtrays
watch the wreathing smoke
strangle those arrow-shot birds
with the balls to keep circling
the coppered bone dome
do not stray onto perilous
elysian fields
where dull daggers of bliss
forged in dung-fires of duty
threaten your transparent skin
flee carnivorous puppets
with umbilicals running from
dead white men’s graves
by shooting yourself
from a cannon that’s trained
upon monuments
honoring enmity
lick clean the dead glory
from bleeding engravures
to nourish your newborn
hybrid hostility
hop a lift on a cockeyed
revolutionist tailgate
but beware its dogmatic
homicidal exhaust
seek rapture in aroma
of overcooked flowers
force-feed them to children
who’d rather eat flags
but grew fat on indulgence
unable to run from your
bombthrower’s hands
imprison in dungeons
atrophied fists clenching
scrolls of rapacious
neatly lined script
that no living pen
has learned how to stroke
cut your soul into swatches
and hide them in pockets
of invisible conformity
the silent new uniform
that stiffens your spine
when the armistice comes
and explodes on your truth
those patches will help you
refurnish your heart
all assuming of course
that you’ll still be alive

 

(originally posted March 2013)