Section 3:
The Scale of Pop (justice Jeremiads)
Burger King
I remember one night in 1998
when I worked as a fry cook at Burger King
I closed the store and fought off the oblivion
of quite business tired eyes and overworked love tears
my manager a local pastor
let us play the tape deck
as we cleaned the broiler
and scrubbed the ketchup stains of capitalism
I dropped in a cassette tape I had mixed
He talked about waking up and having no food-
The first song was CCR’s Midnight Special
my manager polished the counters
a young man brought out huge blocks of beige butter
and dropped them into the fryers
She wanted to see the governor-
Midnight Special, one song in a moment
but I have never had an audience so spellbound by media before or after
we felt the lyrics down to our yellow/white marrow
much like the butter
the manager smiled
and remembered God doesn’t forsake people
he was not a rich man
as most who lived in Linton Indiana
poVerty was a common as smoker’s colds
I refuse to distance myself from God
as I grow older
in those moments I see the poor Jesus hamming away at his bench
listening to CCR himself
inhaling the melodic chimes of the music of Paradise
Cell Phones
Standing inside The Thornton Dial gallery one day
I saw someone on a cell phone
Did visions voluptuous come dressed in text or talk?
some kind of ancient Godhood was forgotten
to technology I never knew I missed it
until I wasn’t connected
EsoteriC dials and meters
Hello, yes the family’s fine
she says talking in front of the art piece about the Great
Depression in the South from a poor black farmer’s son
do phone calls meaning derive joy?
but thought I to no meaning could
when Godfull splendor dresses the walls
yellow, fuchsia, stinging gold,
electric sexual charcoal drawings, cow bones, and ROSE!!!
For this you can wait until I am home to talk talk talk
Jersey Shore
the truth youth of young men
did you ever see Jersey Shore?
Not quite for sleep of death lust wrought age
for weak of flesh dress purple pain
Jesus this blanched life
tides of lapping Jersey Shores
a loud lie fa la la la la la la
who by menboys ask of LoT for
beguiled womengirls
and tattooed skin and sleep rhythms
and sips of yellow beer
could not bring to them love
gold not dressed heeled regrets
When all is done and scars leads
nothing like abysses of truth
noting 15 minutes comes and goes
channels change clothing molds
Joe Conrad’s Repeat River
choicethestars
Helios god of the sun
cHariots of FIREhorse
My god God to freechoose
This is about how African Americans speak of water
ancient rivers still clear and blue
not of plastic refuse steel waste
cigarette butts sunworn Pepsi cans putrid cream rising yellow
Cross the Ohio beloved cherub
although time stands still
cold cold July sunHelioSdazzlinghigh
To holY prayers fold hands I
and bewept the river nymphs innocence
White River White River
Love in the Mist SEedS
White River White River
The ghost of John Lennon
and this to summer inK black skies
did I or YUE me or primRosie the Riveter ask for right of manwomenlovebrideofChrist?
Each glamour’s inside for untouched earth
put your milky white hands into
thE dirt feeling for that which you will return
that which was scared to those who came before
to the ink black skies of summer I say stand sTand
like a giant and ask for each of menwomen to have rights inherit in living
THis is the great revoLution John Lennon (thankyou for the music) And I didn't need your gLASses
but a pen
Odde o day
I see the tall mountains
standing like giant windmills
GianTs are tall trees with wooden clubs
and a hell of a lot of makeup on
i was a transgender student
of my foreign math
Odde o day, to a saintly gay man
who drove me home
the haunted bisexual giving
me quarters for arcade games
it was Pac Man and she who saved my soul that night
with bright colored Pac pellets and dancing lights
Aquaman drives home in
the snow to his lover
The Flash He dreams of lit
Christmas trees with moon children dancing
like cherubs in August heat
lighting dark corners of rooms
Aquaman pulls into his drive
turns his engine off and walks
home with a handful of presents in ruby ribbons
and sultry cinnamon sash
dreams of honest virtue
pure as electricity in circuits
Two Poem Melody (LustTWINSTWINS)
But now liven wild holy drifts
from ash to prairie grass
the holyfire mismanagement of twins
hunted down dumbwitted tears
they cry of loves losing battle
needing Dolcedark eyelashes
he dressed in Gabardine
Well just one of the twins
she wears diamond crushed crewneck
with paper thin wisdom
armed away in spacE travel
Mary Kate Ashley androids
HEavens stardust ashes lent
wrapped around his neck
kissed him colder spoke FULLHOUSE songs instead
of Solomon Siouxcitysin
deep MELouidousMAINframe
hollyholy and rantrythmic
he wished out to the corner of his mind
he could drive towards Jupiterheatlove
the stardustplanet
reach its tropical ocean
team of flooders
yellow and blue
A Blender FaNtasticElectric: PostmOdern Pop Poems Page 4