KINGS AND QUEENS OF AMERICA by Giulio Magrini

All felonies forgiven
Misdemeanors forgotten
Our lungs populated
With cheaters and thieves
Pardons cascade upon citizen villains
We indoctrinate with vacancy
Absolutions incite attacks
The guilty cannibalize their own

Puncture the sky
Poison the land     
With no provision for a compass
Everything is authorized

Through these detonations we notice
A solitary statue detailing
The preservation of dignity
The vindication of opulence
It stipulates that we elude passion
The appearance of panic
And by all means
Don’t disturb yourselves

Well done thy good and faithful servant
I present this book of law
And evidence of civilization

Platinum and roses await
In the winner’s circle
The confident stride of royalty
In magnanimous America
Distributor of dreams and cheap beer
To the unimportant created equals

Cold cash and frozen genders
List the fundamental elements of equation
Occupying a position
Where the soul is thought to be

The dustless cowboys
Purveyors for America’s sanitized west
Vaquero garbagemen
Casually embrace their six-shooters
And Sioux warriors grasp the sky
And fall instantly dead
Deaths are portrayed as
Tidy and hygienic
And personify the ecstasy
Of the American process

II.

The first lady poses and poses again
In trendy Pierre Hermé regalia
That expression defiantly frozen
A languid and bloodless placement
Of a porcelain-colored hand     
Upon her breast
As a guided missile
Erupts into the gentle salt breeze
And frightens the albatross
In the desecrated sky

In our living rooms
Mickey and Minnie
Burlesque happily
They scurry in effeminate fury
To turn America on
And it is an economic windfall
As the kiddies play with the chum
From the Disney company

The morality of acquisition
Suffocates our spirits
And endangers our bodies and homes
Justicia giggles at the lines in our maps
And ridicules our efforts of remedy
Normally an offering
To the hungry eyeballs of politicians
Juggling opinions in the air

We lie in cardiac care

There are no concerned relatives
In the waiting room outside
Sequins glitter on a wet spot
In the middle of the bed
No one is saying anything
The woman with hooded eyes
Smiles appreciatively
America told us she was justice

 

Giulio Magrini has performed and published his work for over fifty years, and is from Pittsburgh PA. His anthology The Color of Dirt is available on the internet or preferably from him personally at giulio27@verizon.net. He has been nominated for both the Pushcart prize and Best of the Net twice. Giulio tells us “We have put our hands in the dirt and sanctified each other”.

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