…And all the wars that brave men refused to fight
…And the last minute of your birthday
…And a fire’s dying ember
…And the echo of a dog howling beneath the Manhattan bridge
…And all the colleges loans deferred like dreams
…And the symphony that was never composed
…And the false promise of an honest man being paid what he is worth
…And the worth of reinvented mathematical formulas
…And when a baby first discovers that she has toes
…And a boombox jettisoning salsa beats across Jerome Avenue
…And that time that we climbed Montserrat
Or was it El Yunque?
Or was it Erciyes?
Or was it Bear Mountain?
…And whenever she hums while washing dishes I am converted
…And you missed the assignment because you were too busy drawing frogs
…And he lived happily ever after in the meadows of Northern New Jersey
…And then he says, “The Aristocrats!”
…And one part hydrogen makes water
…And Thaxton and Terry and Kerry and Steve and Quinn were all there
…And then that kind of fear that leaves you oddly curious
…And there will be an age when our good deeds will be the only currency
…And once the sky departs us
…And soon were are intangible
…And the unknown is liberated from its bondage
…And the tide recedes
...And
…And her bag of marbles were lost in the cupboard
…And when she found them again they had become microchips
…And the horse that hailed a taxi
…And the unsaid is soon our wallpaper
…And a snapping turtles wades
…And every curse is birthed into cotton candy
…And my knee has never felt the same since
…And those Roman columns guarded the coast
…And where a ravine of sound divides the hemisphere
…And hiding in the closet with imaginary friends
…And his Zidjian cymbals
…And the Stratocaster carves notes into the hillsides
…And the Nationalists claim victory
…And the almost thereness of silence in a damp Chicago alley
…And we laughed at the silliness of the matter
…And what a poor man says suddenly mattered
…And our abstractions were extracted into matter
…And we pressed further on into the jungle
Searching for shelter from the rain, we pressed on
…And on
…And on
...And
The Savages
The savages are right now double parked in front of the World Bank
They are at the salon getting their manicures
Standing in line at the movies while talking on their cell phone
Pondering which credit card to use to pay for dinner
The savages wade through racks at the local Macy’s
They send their offspring to private schools
Cypher through the New York Times during breakfast
Take lots a digital photos as they graze along "private" beaches
Mechanical carrots are dangled above their heads
The savages are pawing at them curiously
They are stuffing their mammoth nests with carbon copy
Furniture plucked from mail order catalogs
The savages stow away in offices to play cute little games
Sorting files and giving power point presentations
Weighing the pros and cons of hedge fund investments
The beast with the largest off shore account is declared alpha male
The savages pore over mirrors in awe
Wearing strange apparel adorned with corporate emblems
They spend hours staring at walls of light like gnats to a candle
Gather for press conferences announcing the new tabloid scandal
The savages like to color code their allies and enemies
And they have been known to practice cannibalism
Goading their own into metropolitan pig pens
Feasting on the weakest of their denomination
So barbaric they do not share provisions with the greater tribe
So primeval they postulate significance to their charade
So vulgar they claim parcels of Earth like an infant with a rattle
So uncouth they assume others should clean up their mess
Passively brutal
Politely ruthless
Eloquently callous
Elegantly ignoble
Please do not let their expensive attire
And good manners deceive you
These mongrel creatures are solipsistic
Felonious antagonistic and extremely venomous
