two pennies for a guided tour

[sgt.null]

first and foremost

fragmented, fractured...
absurdity is recycled (this
withered art form) fever
dreams, waking seems...

lowest common denominators
worked over by idiot savants...
(they all know savate) cursing
our versatility, canned laughter
leaving you dry. avant-garde
gardeners tending empty nests.

anachronistic simplicity buzzes
past the edge, our vision. (puzzle
over indecision) whistling past
our tombs, calming radiators
are pumping steam. (high beams)

go-go dancers, locked in cages...
anxious parents hover, looking for
dangers in the benign (begin, begin)

posters posted in neighborhoods...
search engines engages, you can
find the registry office (it is always
open) so let us begin to count...

twenty-one pranksters, fourteen
porters, seven new-age prophets
(counting their profits) one fisherman.

guerillas patrol bordertowns, search
for bohemians. their blacked-out
vans, full-blast, proofed windows
and rumble seats. (call shotgun)

low-ranking crew drawing short
straws. drowning in in tidal pools.

second-hand paces...

chemistry sets are up in the
basement. chemists engaging in
light-hearted banter. (they disperse)

millions of demonstrators line up
at roach coaches (union mandated
breaks) old white men recline in
Barcaloungers, manning all the
parapets. laughing at the effigies.

everyone present feels a pulse in
their head... standby comedians are
dispatched to quell the crowds...

reporters crawl under fences and
over barricades - only to be rounded
by off-duty thugs. (police take notice)
the brutes are decked out in full riot
gear, notches notched on their belts.

synthetic apathy (made in America!)
floats down from ivory towers, the
jokesters caught up in hoaxes, artists
gather their paystubs funding under-
funded public projects. (underhanded?)

mobsters rout the homeless, clearing
out disputed territory. (sharing Molotov
cocktails and Louisville sluggers...)

blast furnaces running on high. grey
ash and acid rain. (sense of deja vu)
charcoal and gunpowder Volkswagens
lined up at the gas stations. (full service)
psychedelic battering rams tied to their
fronts (where the trunks are kept...)

waitresses on smoke-breaks, watching
disorientated vagrants with distorted
mind sets (try the horizontal, now the
vertical) suicide bombers stopping at
border kiosks, searching for the right
map. (not wanting to be left behind.)

hysterical crossing guards are constant,
hyperventilating into their paper bags...

cyclone fences covered by frozen drifts,
bouncers in snow shoes gather at the
cenotaphs. milling, waiting for his return.