by Gerard Donnelly Smith

Poetry

"We indulge ourselves with a moral schizophrenia so filled with contradictions it is no wonder we are confused. We are a schizoid culture because different value systems contend among us for hegemony and compromise, and we are so afraid of the consequences of actually deciding to let starving people starve, that we can act only in ways that bring our own starvation nearer."
—Howard McCord (1989)

Leave this messy house behind:
the arguments piled up like dirty dishes,
the denials hidden like dust bunnies,
beneath the polished floors of our daily routine.

Behind the lips, our teeth shine:
sincerity reflects from the well-ground lens
with which children torture other children
upon the concrete sidewalks of our lovely neighborhoods.

Shine this light upon the route of our escape:
the dead ends and wrong turns illuminate,
the choices seen piled up like fatal accidents,
upon the well-paved thoroughfares of our rapid transience.

Escape this petty, bourgeois lifestyle:
the accumulated fashion and furniture,
the comforts work like an anesthetic
upon the central nervous system or our fiscal responsibility.

Leave now, before the Villagers torch the house:
frustration progresses into outright rebellion
with which monsters overthrow monsters
upon the revisionist screen of our collective memory.

Torch this house and all its shining artifacts:
reject the security brightly proffered;
deny the acquiescence so easily adopted
piled-up behind the revolving doors of our corporate egos.

Internal Resources

Poetry on Swans

About the Author

Gerard Donnelly Smith on Swans (with bio).

Legalese

Please, feel free to insert a link to this work on your Web site or to disseminate its URL on your favorite lists, quoting the first paragraph or providing a summary. However, please DO NOT steal, scavenge, or repost this work on the Web or any electronic media. Inlining, mirroring, and framing are expressly prohibited. Pulp re-publishing is welcome -- please contact the publisher. This material is copyrighted, © Gerard Donnelly Smith 2005. All rights reserved.

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