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. 
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