In the Land of an Occupying Power

Painting by Salvador Dali


In the land of an occupying power

a.
Sunrise
and we open our eyes.
We pull the drapes back.
We listen to Wagner.
Sun, we say to ourselves,
it's time you put the world
back on our plates.

b.
but like a Dali painting

it begins where it ends.
In a melting chaos.
In a strange disorder.
In the creation of spells
with only blood to drink.
In the death of a parent,
in the hurt of a child,
in the war in Iraq,
when the glass beneath
another shatters, all we
can do is hope, grasping
the arms of our chairs.

c.
The arrival of Christ in Coos Bay

What can I tell you? He came at last.
The high school band opened the parade
riding in a screaming red fire truck while
thirty-five midget cars,
driven by politicians,
circled and honked at the senior citizen
contingent, consisting of rich old ladies
in bikinis, lounging like hood ornaments
on top of six polished black hearses
filled to their roofs with plastic flowers
thrown out to the cheering crowds by
anti-abortionist, Christian, fundamentally
pregnant mothers. Judas came next,
waving a homeland security banner
proclaiming the Neocon kingdom of heavenly
power, now and forever. Next came Guernica.
Then, Christ appeared in the form
of the black dove of mourning
and He frowned like a great
horned owl whose feathers were flames
scattering the crowd
as if they were pretentious
idolaters or a mob of scrappy crows.

© 2005 - Scott Malby

Posted over on Radiocad Karoo

On this site there was an addendum:

Scott Malby has been laid, splayed and etherized on so many web sites he no longer counts. He is also prone to let what he writes vaporize without a copy. Writing for him is a disease for which he has yet to find a cure. Its contraindications are represented by a sweet euphoria that rises up from the process of creation itself. He exists in genteel poverty and anonymity in Coos Bay, Oregon. Just search the Internet with his name if you care to read more.