Thursday, December 01, 2011

INTIMATIONS OF THE NEXT WORLD

22.

"In the henhouse he will leave only to die, the cock
crows hymns to liberty because he has been given two perches."
Fernando Pessoa, THE BOOK OF DISQUIET

Hillary Clinton
clumps around Myanmar in
a turquoise pantsuit,
but in the museum of
marionettes in Lisbon

the most popular
Burmese puppets are either
the generals or
the alchemists. Portugese
political puppets smile,

blush and confess the
risks of more austerity,
while 2 million state
employees in the UK
walk off their jobs protesting

the gleam in the eye
of their government
officials, knives poised
above the gordian knot
of their pensions, their lifeline,

while here in Lisbon
the general strike fizzled
and fell on its face,
and Los Angeles police
chase off the folks camped out in

front of city hall,
while a team of Mexican lawyers
denounce Calderon
at the world criminal court.
Crimes against humanity

are are all the rage now;
as the ex-president of
the Ivory Coast
is brought to The Hague, many
others still wait in the wings,

and the most brilliant
puppet in Lisbon is a
woman in a chair
called A Piece of Soul Goes Out
of the Body through a Scar.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"Hillary Clinton CLUMPS..." LOL- perfect! I trust taht you are enjoying your adventure in Portugal. Stay safe,

sLiMsHaDY