poem of the day 02.29.16

all american pig heads

pig heads

hanging from sweaty windows

on fifth avenue

like the two fat italian guys i’m watching

eating pizza and watching hoops in their NYPD t-shirts

this is what passes for sightseeing around here

this is what passes for heroics

cop t-shirts or millionaire athletes

i watch them sucking cheese and processed meat

i can tell the way this country is going

by the way their eyes flicker toward ESPN

instead of the truth

i shouldn’t hate these men upon sight

but i do

i don’t know their politics

i don’t know where their hearts are

but i’m willing to take an educated guess

based on two hundred and forty years of crooked history

we’re from the same mother i understand

the same industrial beast bleeding from the center

but we’re not the same kind, right?

still, we must have a common loneliness at times

the same dissatisfaction seeping from our all-american pores

or have our souls been shipped overseas?

come on, i mean even i have sucked down a slice or two

ravenously over a game

as if this little democracy was going to end

on a hail mary touchdown or a missed goal

i hate myself

when confronted with such an obtuse throne of judgement

hate myself underdressed in the winter breeze

watching these two men slap five

over every nuance of the knicks game

despising them and their simple afternoon splendor

up the street from me

the empire state building glows crystal white

down here the verrazano-narrows bends toward infinity

moving away from the window

i’m jostled by a strong gust

just a pig’s head here on third avenue

a cog in the colossus

swaying in the slop

looking for the quickest way

home.