IN AMERICA by Matt Moon
half face and circumspace
I'll see you at the end of town
drinks pool hall cigarette smoke
and the jukebox that somebody keeps
shoving full of quarters and mashing
[whatever] buttons and I've got no goals
but to snag this female for no other reason
than the thrill of the hunt
little kids chase each other and run away
screaming with glee
boys play-fights turning to punch-hits
wars over shovel possession and turns on the slide
the girl has a friend who's fat and dumb and who
acts all creepy slutty with these old fat drunk guys
at the local pub
on a Wednesday night
when I'm home for no reason for once in a while
(I can explain it all with a shrug and a smile)
and people find me amusing
and people pay attention to other things
and people pretty much paint me invisible
except these fifteen in in a sea
of five million in an ocean of
five billion and growing the solar-star systems go on forever in the telescopes
don't you know?
(Òyou don't?Ó)
and the TV says
some team one
in game 153
of season 105
in some flashy dramatic fashion
which included a fist fight
and a wild over-the-fence catch
NOT ALL SPORTS are created equal
value is in TV time and salaries
owners and businessmen
measuring the fields just right
for the right excitement
with the giant wall in left outfield out in Boston
the people clap their hands
they fill the seats when the team is winning
when the air is exciting
when we can all be in a city of champions
wearing matching t-shirts and slapping high-fives
while a war rages on
maybe our cousin was in one
or maybe somebody from high school
a kid at the bar who I used to beat up in wrestling
saying how he's going to Iraq and I'm feeling
horrified because I won't say a goddamn thing except
don't get shot; and make sure you only do good things;
but really in the end I think it all will stop
when the soldiers drop
their guns
and the children dance,
and the people dance
and everyone is one
not by gunship or battlerock
or preachmen who talk the talk
while TVmen they do the walk
and at time with a fee
you too can see me
live for a limited time
with an overpriced bad beer
The beers here are bad and cheap
and I feel stupid buying some unique more costly beer with an orange
when everybody's got the cheap beer
and this girl I'm hunting
she looks at the stool next to me
and when she drops me off at my house
with her friends
I try to get her phone number
And she says
Òdon't you live [in another city]?Ó
And I shrug yes
and dance away in the headlights of
the front house I ran away from
years ago only to return
with it lacking all
furniture
maybe it's bougeoise
but I wanna build a house
on a lot of land
that I can make
whatever I want
whenever I want
however I want
STOP! put your shoes at the door
carpet cleaners can't afford
and watch out for all the breakables
lining the house walls
making everything pretty
DON'T LEAN BACK ON THE WOODEN CHAIRS
they're already breaking
lighbulbs burned out
nobody's replaced Ôem
outlets burned out
I've never used a braker
and the lawn's long
with sex going on
with the eunuchs all surrounded
green and edged all along
straight and short and
mowed twice a week
with gasoline and
horse-like things
that the kids ride
and the kids ride
motor toys
up and down the court
in the suburbs, we don't have
dead ends we have
little round courts that you can swing around
without having to enter
anybody's
driveway
DON'T JUMP ON THE TRAMPOLINE
insurance doesn't cover it
you'll break bones and law suits
and sharks smelling 30 percent
O type blood on the
bloody glove
planted by an agent
white and racist
supposedly I once believed
who knows
it doesn't matter
it's all celebrity
Mom watched the local TV news to be in-formed.
black murder bank robbery
five year olds with burn wounds
tyed clothes detergent used cars salesmen
accident legal advice with computer animated tigers
back with the NATION IN 60 SECONDS
big fire fat liar sports riot
a politician talks or two
the baseball
and serial killers
on the loose
or just set free
it's weather and sports
with grandmas and bubbles
high school protests
left out
maybe a news article or
two
(backpages
police report
track marks
of apathy
buzzing like a bug to a
special colored light
when they watch
[such-and-such] episodes
every week on
[some box of blinking lights]
and everybody just tears
everybody else down
and why don't we middle class laugh about it
with our snowdays and
eat-out restraunts
where slaves dance and clap
for tips
In America
there is a map
featuring two
continents that
kiss like a
ying-yang
poly-wug
stretched by Europe and Asian and
Africa and
even
Antarctica
(Australia was a prison
started by the Britains
after all the indigenous
got bulldozed and put on ladders
like puppet
on a stick
with the white man shaking it
OH OBEY MY COMMANDS OR I WILL BRING
LOOTING AND PROSTITUTION AND VIOLENCE
TO YOUR STREETS [oh yes landlord I will do whatever
you command please don't hurt me, I pray to you, please
leave my family and me to be in peace even if it's just TV
or baseball and school and lousy work for half my life
with some money to buy me things like
love and gas and groceries
chemicals that run the machines I need
with knives and forks
and paper plates
We shot the indian the mexican
the philipine
the eurapin
the african
we stole long ago
then left alone
to starve and die
from what the
eurapin dun two dem
once a time
I read ago
here I am
22 to go
oh I don't know but you know
we should just throw away money
like garbage that poisons us
garbage to bury
garbage to forget about
we can burn bags in the street
we can paint art with it
I don't know
But I just know
maybe we can dance and stop being so greedy and trust one another
but manifest destiny trusts
are doormats for the empire
who bring you the circuses
in which you can clap and feel one
with a crowd of people you don't
know.
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