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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