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jeffgreen | Poem

                                                 .
Poetry Offering From Jeff Green
 
Free Market of Ideas

The Best Explanation

North Side Houston in the House

A Plea For Less Ruling and More Class

The Hipster’s Poem

short autobio


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

Free Market of Ideas

TV is free to say
that by bombing
we get to continue
our “way of life”
free to say don’t bomb them
free to have interests in Arabia
free to enforce contracts
freely signed by corporations and dictators
freely installed
by the agencies ordered
by a free government
chosen by free people
free to spend corporate money
to buy ads in the free press
that tell us what we are free to want

children
free to cruse the mall
free from fear
free of  Islamic Kamikazes
crashing our markets
their children are being killed by a bad man
who will not do what he is told
anymore
bombs are not intended to kill children
besides, only evil children would want to live unfree
under a dictator
rather than free under U.S. military governors
and the ones who survive will be free
as Haliburton is free
free as the children living above
Occidental’s oil in Colombia
as free as George Bush Jr.
free to bomb anyone they like

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The Best Explanation

But there could be another explanation.
Pick your poison.
Is it the letting of bad blood necessary every ten years or so?
The fall of Babylon, in old Babylon or New York?
The end of another new covenant, the return of Christ, Shiva, Quetzalquatal, or some Coyote God sniffing the dumpsters outside a casino?
Are the seven sisters setting up a few Islamic brothers in a bride’s trap?
Is DeBeres and Anglo-American tightening a few clasps in the Queen’s studded slip?
Is Jr.’s daddy distracting the dull democracy to cover up another coup in South, Central, or that other America?
The surfacing of the Underground Reich?
Is it the further consolidation of empire, developing into the final stages of capital?
The end of the age of reason and the dawn of the raison d’etre?
Is it the specter of mortality driving a projection of termination archetypes on a blue screen that’s been playing the same b-movie, running for its ten thousandth consecutive year?
Is it my own invented intrigue to make things interesting because I don’t get laid enough?
Perhaps bad brain-waves broadcast from orbiting satellites placed by the tall greys that the crop circle makers tried to warn us about?
Mercury in my fillings?
Stray neutrinos?
Free radicals in cooked food?
Fluoride in the water?
The dawn of the age of aquariums?
The bop apocalyps?

I heard a poet decked out like Frantz Fanon in drag.
For a while everything was clear to me
as she explained the implied violence in Kant’s Perpetual Peace.

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North Side Houston in the House

‘Sup ‘sup East West homies my name is Kenny Lay
the cat you watched steal away your 401k
The politicians in my pocket jingle on
“we are shocked and amazed how did we miss Enron?”
I jacked more in a week then you did in a year
you East West marks need lessons ’dats why Kenny’s here

(chorus)

O.G. Republacrats are playing you punks but good
profiting from kleptocracy.  You would if you could.
We buy and sell you punks futures on the exchange.
Owners of the world unite! nothing to lose but change.
In corporate democracy the trade that pays is theft
knowing how and who to bribe is also most deff.

(chorus)

You punks work hard to not get worked like working class ants
but when you're caught Unidine will work you in prison making army pants
You need to steal smart not hard if you wanna be like me
your risk reward ratio fails economically
lawmakers are cheap, five g’s and laws are switched
your business is crime so best make the law your bitch.

(chorus)

The marks I pay to take the fall might come a little cheaper
They could get less Unidime time if I buy off the teachers
I’ll dump the Enron letterhead on California schools
art class confetti from Arthur’s shredding crews.
So both coasts shout out “thanks for the education!”
and thanks again west coast clicks for the deregulation

chorus:

Ken Lay’s Enron, gets ‘day learn on
Ken Lay’s Enron, gets ‘day learn on
forty-two kids minus forty desks equals two who run too the store
grab and dash some forties, cause school’s a fucking boar
Ken Lay’s Enron, gets ‘day learn on
Ken Lay’s Enron, gets ‘day learn on

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A Plea For Less Ruling and More Class

What we need is a plutocracy with class
one better at feigning incompetence than Jr.
one that sells us feelings of security at a cheaper rate
one that is concerned that we feel we get something
when they steel our money

We need a plutocracy that looks good in silk
who organically farms the empire
without defoliants, pesticides or irradiation
one like the one the Chinese tossed out

What did they trade for their “republic”?
new philosophers, better at rationalizing repression?
different colors on the insignia above the baton strap?
industrialization?

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The Hipster’s Poem

The class struggled to stay awake
as Mr. Cassidy explained the poem
It was powerful
incited riots
it was relevant
but not fifteen minutes before lunch
Five years ago he had given up
reading the poem
He was never able to translate the passion
in a way that made the class respond
Now they read the poem
with the sanitized bio in Literature for all Ages
then answer chapter summery questions

When he first read the poem
it was called  A poem that revolutionized consciousness
He started wearing black sweaters
getting laid
He felt alive then
but no revolution came
No matter how hard he hammered
on the typewriter
the only revolution was in art

he was young, now mature,
Mr. Cassidy teaches
political poems are propaganda,
If we allow artists to be revolutionaries
than we are forced
to accept deodorant commercials as art

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short autobio:

I live in Riverside California with my wife and two daughters. I am an
editor of Epicenter Literary Magazine, www.epicentermagazine.org. For my
complete life story you can read the Autobiography of Henry E. Huntington.
Ignoring all the homoeroticism, divide all monetary values and travel
distances by one thousand and replace all references to great works of art
and literature with promotional posters of '80s new wave bands.
 

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