No Levity

...they tell jokes all fucking day.
The rain is funny because now
they don't have to take a shower.

They poke each other with sticks
and laugh until they puke.
They radiate and all around them dies.

At this hour, they fuck. The elaborations are mathematical. When you
say Ten Times Peace, you're just talking about inflation.

When you add up the letters of the warriors and they are still skillets
without grease, banging away at us under fire beneath the tube and
those slithery things that leak out of truths when they perspire we are
knowing, pie charts, disillusion multiplication tables, the enemy of
cocktail parties and debriefings...

Save us, screecher in the back corner with a porno mag and an unloaded
revolver. Threats grow like unwanted hairs on moles, compounding the
problem.

And then over the cartoon is that balloon above their heads where the
text is supposed to tell us why and when. We'll settle instead for
homecoming. Our dicks won't stay hard for long and no one's incubator
is going to last the distance.

We jack in the box and pop the heads out when it's time for redemption:
Sanctions.
Eliminations.
some 43 percent of Americans
are in a poll. Every second.
Wasted.

There are plenty of Carthaginians to kick around. We don't need these
headaches. We bought the most television time. We are the mothers and
the fathers and the misdirections so get in line and we will promise
YOU
and all the others
all the other things they wanted.
And then we will be Ovid's best stories never published, never
pondered,
and we will gaze into a vast economy
until we lose our refrigerated skyline sight,
and they come to dump out the ashtrays
at night, always at night...


*****

Frank was excited about his new rifle, and decided to try bear
hunting. He spotted a small brown bear and shot it. There was
then a tap on his shoulder, and he turned around to see a big
black bear.

The black bear said, "That was my cousin, and you have got
two choices. Either I maul you to death or we have sex." After
considering briefly Frank decided to accede to the latter alternative.

Even though he felt sore for two weeks, Frank soon recovered
and vowed revenge. He headed out on another trip where he
found the black bear and shot it. There was another tap on his
shoulder. This time a huge grizzly bear stood right next to him. The
grizzly said, "That was a huge mistake, Frank. That was my
cousin and you have got two choices. Either I maul you to death
or we have rough sex." Again, Frank thought it was better to
cooperate.

Although he survived it would take several months before Frank
finally recovered. Outraged he headed back to the woods and he
managed to track down the grizzly and shoot it. He felt sweet revenge,
but then there was a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to find a
giant polar bear standing there.

The polar bear said, "Admit it Frank, you don't come here for the
hunting, do you?"