1.

Sing us no Prozac lullabies
for Hispanic Manzanars,
containment areas for the foreign bodies
of government-projected alien invasions;
where huddled masses manufacture plastic opium pills

in the shape of sneakers and t-shirts and SUVs,
video games, American jobs, genetically modified
food to soothe our heartland ’s anxiety

that we might become them. Workers of the world
united by multinational chains,
they do not threaten our freedom

or the free enterprise that might have been ours, before
greed snatched the name of a body and rights of a person, no less
the protection meant for persons of color – this bloodless psychopath

that has invaded the refuge
and looted the corpse,
then ritually displayed the body
of its proud work, to teach us an object lesson
in the conduct of terrorism.

2.

The real high-tech lynching
is our Constitution silenced by day-trading
in open secrets, the limited culpability of shareholders
shifted to families. I mean blame. On career women

who could not stay home with their kids if they wanted to, shifting
blame onto absent or unemployed fathers with no time or money
to adjust to dehumanization with legal drugs or therapy,

incarcerated or institutionalized –
or kicked out onto the street.

One, two, three, four: Who the hell are we working for?
Cui bono ? Who benefits
by selling us ignorance in the guise of bliss?

3.

Branding campaigns
are how we are marked by the the Beast,
complete with bar codes.

Even as a fictional character, Christ made no product endorsements,
and preached that “great service” meant being the servant of all,

especially the poor, and the meek who stand to inherit the earth,
the designated heirs and executors of God’s Will,

which is the Dharma the Beatitudes passed down
from Buddha through Christian legends of a Teacher of Righteousness
named Jesus.

4.

Whose kingdom is coming? On whose hunched backs
are the shining cities built, the gated
communities of the upper class?

By whose standards are all tested, and the very definitions
of our quality and equality controlled?

Interrogate and protest
the work ethic, and its enforcers
will most assuredly come to interrogate you.

America is not the New Israel but the New Roman Empire,
Byzantine scheme of the convert Constantine,
as France and Germany, Spain and England before us.

5.

In this the deconstructionists are right:
it takes an Anti-Christ to create a Christ.

I have my critics, too. They say I can’t say these things
because “people won’t understand,”
because people can’t or won’t lend flesh
to so many abstractions.

They say it is not possible to write
directly accusatory poetry
that is still poetry. So be it!

Shall I be silenced for lack of a proper brand name,
a license…a logo? The logos of corporate sponsors?

If the rhythm of this Jeremiad is no song
but generic invective, I accept
the profitless label end-user markets reject,

and no one can stop me from giving these words away.

6.

Weaned from the paps of Mammon, autonomy
does not depend on propertyintellectual
or otherwise.

There is no ownership of votes, but a priesthood of all believers
and unbelievers – the Sangha

whose refuge is the painful Truth, awake, alive,
and crucified:

All our relations transubstantiated,
suffering and dying
to save our world,

We have become the body of Christ.

We have become the body
of Christ.

We have become

the body
of Christ.


Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.