The butter is hard--
the biscuit takes it like a punch.
Eat your crumbs, child.
The milk expands, exploding the jug.
Cold cows care for nothing,
least of all the farmer's hands blue on the udder.
This is agri-business. There are rules.
The clerk is here to count the kernels.
No kindness from crows hard and polished as obsidian.
The vane is a zig-zag escapee
shouting "Freedom!" from inside the wind's mouth
where white teeth worry at fogged-up windows.
Automated fakes pass out promises
in Dixie cups, hats bobbing like generator vent caps,
a rooster in every head, erupting with cold words.
Paint the chickens black and white
and dress them in freezer bags like crunchy raincoats.
Salute the magpie, child,
for luck, your ribs bent into a horseshoe and nailed
above the big open door
where our policies are performed.
_______
for Word Garden Word List--Philip K. Dick
WOW! Out of the park! Original, hard-hitting and with the most amazing imagery. "Cold cows...the farmer's hands blue on the udder." Outstanding.
ReplyDeleteSome hard hitting and powerful imagery spreads magnificently in this wonderful poem - really impactful - Jae
ReplyDeleteThere is a bleak anger in this that makes it all the more potent and the visuals are uncompromising and stark in reinforcing it. '..a rooster in every head..." what a horrible thought, grisly and absurd at the same time, like the entities you call out here, greedy, uncaring, sterile and all engaged in the business of turning life into money. The opening stanza id a masterpiece on its own. A fine and extremely cohesive and tough bit of writing, Shay.
ReplyDeleteOutstanding imagery in this, Shay!
ReplyDeleteYour imagery is so powerful. I should just copy and paste the entire poem, but I will only do this one.
ReplyDelete"Automated fakes pass out promises
in Dixie cups, hats bobbing like generator vent caps,
a rooster in every head, erupting with cold words."
You've captured the darkness of politics, the acceptance of lies because cultic minds pledge to follow a leader.
This: “The butter is hard--
ReplyDeletethe biscuit takes it like a punch.
Eat your crumbs, child.”
And this: “ Paint the chickens black and white
and dress them in freezer bags like crunchy raincoats.”
"Cold cows care for nothing,
ReplyDeleteleast of all the farmer's hands blue on the udder."
"No kindness from crows hard and polished as obsidian."
"The vane is a zig-zag escapee
shouting "Freedom!" from inside the wind's mouth"
I love all the sounds and images in this poem.
This elicited a gasp from me with that first biting stanza--and I sat up excitedly to dig into the rest of it. Right from the start to the close--this poem just does not let up. Magnifique!
ReplyDelete