poem of the day 03.16.11

mercenaries

the father gets on the bus
with his two little girls
they are both blonde
wear the same purple hat
and long blue coats
but are not twins
they are russian
look arian with their
white blonde hair and blue eyes
the father wears a new york city
baseball hat
because he wants people
to know that he is patriotic
they take up seats in the back of the bus
then it begins
the two girls screaming and yelling
in a mixture of russian and english
swinging around poles on the bus
slapping books and phones
out of people’s hands
singing in the worst doll voices
as the father yells at them in russian
tries to get up and chase after the girls
but the space is too confined
too packed with the sadness
of the late afternoon
for him to really do anything
and the little girls know this
they stare at their old man
with ice blue eyes of hell
smirk
before screaming at the top of their lungs
and laughing
as people move away toward other seats
call their friends and relatives to complain
you cannot read or think
when these children are on the bus
you can only sit there and wait
for them to get off
seeing them makes me pray
this nation changes its child labor laws
because i’d like to see these two heathens
get put to work
release some of that energy digging clean coal
or pumping oil in the gulf
but these children may already have a job
they work for
planned parenthood or the government
on the darkest days of yelling, singing,
and laughing
i think the two children are mercenaries
sent from russia or somewhere else
hell bent on murder or destruction
because that’s how i feel
when i see them
dead
hollow
murderous
like i want to rip my balls off
and castrate every other man
within a ten mile radius
toss all of our balls over the railing
watch gleefully
as trucks runs over them
during rush hour
on the brooklyn-queens expressway