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We are a public forum committed to collective reasoning and the imagination of a more just world. Join today to help us keep the discussion of ideas free and open to everyone, and enjoy member benefits like our quarterly books.
You are a whore. You are an old whore.
Everyone hates you. God hates you.
He pretty much has had it with all women
But, let me tell you, especially you. You like
To think that you can think faster than
The rest of us—hah! We drive the car
In which you’re a crash dummy! So
Why do you defy our Executive Committee
Which will never cede its floor to you? If a pig
Flew out of a tree & rose to become
A blimp—you would write a poem
About it, ignoring the Greater Good,
The hard facts of gravity. You deserve to be
Flattened by the Greater Good—pigs don’t
Fly, yet your arrogance is that of a blimp
Which has long forgotten its place on this earth.
Big arrogance unmoored from its launch pad
Floating free, up with mangy Canadian honkers,
Up with the spy satellites and the ruined
Ozone layer which is, btw, caused by your breath,
Because you were born to ruin everything, hacking
Into the inspiration of the normal human ego.
You are not Queen Tut, honey, you are not
Even a peasant bar-maid, you are an aristocrat
Of Trash, landmine of exploding rhinestones,
Crown of thorns, cabal of screech-bats!
I am telling you this as an old friend,
Who is offering advice for your own good—
Change now or we will have to Take Measures—
If you know what I mean, which you do—
& now let’s hear one of your fucked-up poems:
let’s hear you refute this truth any way you can.
Carol Muske-Dukes is author of 8 books of poems, 4 novels, 2 collections of essays (including I Married the Icepick Killer: a Poet in Hollywood) and editor of a few anthologies, including Crossing State Lines: an American Renga with Bob Holman. Her poems and novels have been NY Times Notable Books, Best American Poetry selections, Pushcart Prizes and finalists for the National Book Award & LA Times Book Award. Several of her books have recently been re-published as e-books by Open Road Media. She is professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California and former Poet Laureate of California. She writes for The New York Times, and is poetry critic for the LA Times and Huffington Post. www.carolmuskedukes.com
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