MY FELLOW CITIZENS


        Our many differences far outweigh
        what we have in common.  For this reason
        I have bundled ten years’ accumulation
        of newspapers, blocked my windows with them,
        setting aside a sufficient quantity
        to seal up my doors & chimney
        at the appropriate time.  Now,
        I pause to ask you, what is the significance
        of a teddy bear abandoned on the beach
        while a car radio blares Bessie Smith
        singing, “I went to the gypsies to have
        my fortune read?"  We are dealing here
        with the imperfect science of omens
        & coincidences.  You may be familiar
        with the placard I wave at passing motorists
        near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel:

           I AM NOT INSANE
              I AM AN AMERICAN

        Day & night, rain or shine, this is
        my humble way of apologizing for
        the small tragedy that occurred
        when my home-built laser weapon
        missed its intended target, hitting
        an outbound passenger jet several
        miles off the coast of Long Island.
        I was aiming at the Statue of Liberty,
        that evil whore of miscegenation.
        No exposure of the truth is possible
        while liberal media censorship is imposed
        through a right wing conspiracy
        backed by the Elders of Zion
        in collaboration with Hollywood
        & the Southern Baptist Convention.

        Surrealistic techniques are commonly used
        to metamorphosize TV images -
        what are we really seeing?
        We know Andre Breton was a communist,
        Ezra Pound was some sort of facist,
        their World War Two correspondence
        suppressed by the Executive Branch.
        But we cannot account for an ex-officio
        poet laureate of The United States
        recently lamenting our reliance upon
        the subjective “I” in the poem,
        suggesting that in its place we substitute
        the phrase, “my teddy bear”, then
        publicly regretting the failure
        of his first marriage!

        Shortly after witnessing this shameful vulgarity,
        I heard about an obese, thrice-divorced
        woman living in trailer park
        outside a military base in Texas.
        This unhappy female became a Mormon
        after she went to the gypsies
        to have her fortune read.
 
 
 

Bob Rixon