Dignity
And the illusion of dignity
May you never have to wax your moustache
Or wear a whalebone corset
Manufactured by an uptight tailor
From the bones of a gigantic sea creature
That moved with more grace and power
Than fifteen Russian ballet companies
Before it was rudely skewered
By a boat full of filthy apes
Riddled with scurvy and praying for wind
May you never be chased
Through the hot lung busting night
By a gang of religious bigots
Outraged by the color of your skin
And the content of your mind
Owls hooting from the killing tree
No fucking help
And not wise at all
Just concerned with eating mice
And being owls
May you never be a slave
To a lifelong obsession with what things cost
And miss out on the simple joys
That surround you
May you never have to stand
In a slow moving elevator
With ten overweight Texas businessmen
Stopping at every floor
Of a six hundred floor hotel
The doors opening and closing
And people looking inside
At the lack of space
And the gargoyle grimace on your face
The realization hitting them over and over
That no, they can not fit in
And the doors slowly opening and closing
Opening and closing
Guillotining your life away
Slice by dull slice
May you never have to run
With the herd into war
Or support for a war
Filled with the murder of children
So the folks back home
Can maintain a way of life
As senseless as a cow turning a field of grass
Into shit
Through steady mastication
And the processing of four stomachs
A tail at the back swishing away the flies
From the anus
Like the benedictions of a priest
Or the swordplay of a lazy pirate
Or the benediction swordplay of a lazy pirate priest.
May you never
Have to suffer fools
Who come to your house with tools
May you have the balls
To take your own life
Before you’re too old
And incontinent
A burden to your family
Dim of eye and shaky of hand
Clinging on in some
Sterile maze of strangers
After all your loves
Have turned to dust
And your friends have gone
Waiting for expensive medical procedures
That will allow you to do jigsaws
And be patronized by the young
For a few more years
May you never have to sit in traffic
Going places you’d rather not be
May you understand dignity
And the illusion of dignity
And achieve reconciliation
With the void
And live full of joy and mad ecstasy
Your eyes blinking out a million snapshots
To be treasured in the brain pan
May you never cut your gum or inner lip
On the sharp corner of a potato chip
Or choke upon an orange pip
And have people stare at you
In dumb, glass eyed incomprehension
Like freaky ass bovine
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