escape from the horror of alien nation
1.
In this place
(a)
of radiator heat
of knife wounds
of claustrophobia
of totems like broken teeth
pulled from the jaws
of gentrified neighborhoods
where
(b)
police murders hang
like suicides
cancer and mental illness
have social security cards
immigrants believe
work makes you free
in this place
this place
nothing
(c)
lives
survives
is
2.
I tremble
I TREMBLE
white knuckled to the wheel
I drive.
(d)
through it
all the lonliness
of our lives
3.
I hurtle
past the graves
and goats
past the ghosts
and the ghosts of ghosts
their muggy faces
lingering for only moments
in the hot exhaust
(e)
a woman I know
said her name
into the mouth
of a goat
she said it
into a grave
4.
the trees grow weapons
hand grenades plucked
from the branches
by children
are left
in empty school parking lots
farmers become undertakers
buzzards roost in their beards
and crooked hats
(f)
my grandfather
welded shut
his mouth
and cut off
his fingers
this is how
he died
5.
a burning refinery
is a streak in my
windshield
coyotes write
the preamble to
my manifesto
(g)
like Catholics
pray in dead
languages
my love is a Baudelaire
my love is a lion
my love is
(h)
more than I
will ever have
6.
the headlines are ripped from the pages of comic books:
HEORES WAIT IN LINE FOR SUBSIDIZED HOUSING
The Bible tells us:
[Title 29, Chapter 7, Subchapter II, United States Code]
FINDINGS AND POLICIES
Section 1. [S.151] The denial by some employers of the right of employees to organize and the refusal by some to accept the procedure of collective bargaining lead to strikes and other forms of industrial strife or unrest, which have the intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing commerce by (a) impairing the efficiency, safety, or operation of the instrumentalities of commerce; (b) occurring in the current of commerce; (c) materially affecting, restraining, or controlling the flow of raw materials or manufactured or processed goods from or into the channels of commerce; or (d) causing diminution of employment and wages in such volume as substantially to impair or disrupt the market for goods flowing from or into the channels of commerce.
The inequality of bargaining power between employees who do not possess full freedom of association or actual liberty of contract and employers who are organized in the corporate or other forms of ownership association substantially burdens and affects the flows of commerce, and tends to aggravate recurrent business depressions, by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners in industry and by preventing the stabilization of competitive wage rates and working conditions within and between industries.
(i)
the bosses
and the time clock
are of one mouth
we have trusted too much
7.
further
onward
further still
I've gone mad
I drive with my eyes closed
the hungry eat granulated cardboard
the poor wince in the sun
the prairies have turned black
(j)
a man said to me
I am a socialist
as he stuffed a knit of keys
none of which were his
into his pocket
Capitalism is a rape case
8.
I would translate
all these hours
if I had hands
unbroken by factories
even this
will die of
starvation
and grief
(k)
I will never die
I am the million miles
beneath your feet
9.
a street lamp claps out
a grocery store goes dark
and gas pumps lilt to a halt
all of this graceless shift
is enough to stuff your throat
with exclamation points
(l)
I asked my grandfather
what the war was like
he said,
war has sisters
he never spoke of it
again
this is how
he died
10.
the road ahead
like black birds
humming with grit
and terror
and chasms
(m)
a woman
with dark lips
and darker hair
wearing a slim dress
and tall heels
I love you
she says
she imagines
she loves me
I imagine
she always will
we go on then
together
on and on
(n)
past fence posts
strung together
by thick barbed wire
past the bell towers
of glowering
churches
past the light-less bulbs
of hungry
department stores
11.
the rivers are drawn in
by mechanized plants
molten sludge emptying
into the plains
the wheat fields
fill with soot
and die
in the north
a bitter wind
screams
the world foams about us
like a great disheveled sea
workers and street signs?
bending into our milky wake
(o)
we cast communist spells
from the windows
we recite the incantations
of Trotsky
still we go
faster and faster
leaning into the concrete
punching our faces
into the skin of the
garbaging sky
(p)
the red of our lips
becoming our flags
and banners
Mike Linaweaver is a socialist and writer/poet from Central Kansas. His work has appeared in Volume, Red Wedge magazine and the Canadian avant garde site ditchpoetry.com.