America’s Gift

 

Overweight in backward hats,
Challenging the stupid stats,
Waddling their selves around,
Reggaetón and rap resound.

Clouds of marijuana smoke
Titillate their womenfolk:
Pouting tattooed baby-mamas
Bulging out of loose pajamas.

Welcome to modernity:
Unpromising maternity…
Our services prolong this scene—
Forget whatever might have been…

PROMPT #29

write a poem in which you muse on the gifts you received at birth — whether they are actual presents, like a teddy bear, or talents – like a good singing voice – or circumstances – like a kind older brother, as well as a “curse” you’ve lived with (your grandmother’s insistence on giving you a new and completely creepy porcelain doll for every birthday, a bad singing voice, etc.). I hope you find this to be an inspiring avenue for poetic and self-exploration.

 

Graded


PROMPT #28: write a concrete poem. Like acrostic poems, concrete poems are a favorite for grade-school writing assignments. A concrete poem is one in which the lines are shaped in a way that mimics the topic of the poem.

 

MOSTLYDULL
O
D
E
REVOLTING                ☻
N
V                 L                  I        W
E               U  A              N        O
R             F        C           A        R
S            W  E  A K        N        S
E          A                S      E        TRASH

(inspired by John Wall Barger and Jessie Raymundo)

Expect Libya

America: a force for global good.
Now shut up as we bomb your neighborhood.

Neighborhoods you have never visited;
Distant lands feel it first. Still interested?

Interest cannot last very long these days
We scroll, confused, in our internet daze

Dazed and confused by too many choices
Bludgeoned to silence by strident voices

Voices of those who despise truth and God
(Though they’re sometimes given a token nod)

Nodding off, doped up . . . hey wait—I hear planes!
Another world war? No. Just labor pains.

Christ warned us of this. Have you understood?
America is a force for global good.

But what really comes across in this riveting interview with the Moriartys is the utter recklessness displayed in Libya (and elsewhere, for that matter) by both NATO and the ‘rebel’ forces, as well as the relish with which they demonstrably enjoyed tearing the entire country apart. These demented animals have access to unparalleled hi-tech weaponry and vehicles, enabling them to ‘achieve feats of destruction’ that before only ‘the gods’ could perform. Their handiwork is psychopathy writ large, the nihilistic culmination of Western civilization, and the glorious – for them – embrace of the destructive principle.

Moriartys on Libya


 PROMPT  27:  write a duplex. A duplex is a variation on the sonnet, developed by the poet Jericho Brown. Like a typical sonnet, a duplex has fourteen lines. It’s organized into seven, two-line stanzas. The second line of the first stanza is echoed by (but not identical to) the first line of the second stanza, the second line of the second stanza is echoed by (but not identical to) the first line of the third stanza, and so on. The last line of the poem is the same as the first.