An  Overwhelming  Majority

An overwhelming majority
alphabet soup philosophies
sick haircut crunchers
in gaseous blue suits
die in sameness, but
they control the (tele)vision
of the future, so even
should you travel the
globe entire, you return
to your abode, the imperative
seems to make it
something withstanding
such odd, fabricated
reports, to be able to go
inside, change what
seems permanent
in fact, is even facade

~~~

Barge  (Section  XVII)

I’m marked by history now
When I read the date “1938”
Or the name “France” or “Italy”
Certain images come into my mind

There’s a man on this road I’ve known
All my life, a simple man with a dog
I know who follows me when I run
Who followed me into the pond
Swam with me, in front of me
As far as I would go

I adore that dog, am sure
Her owner adores her too
But Cheney does not adore
This simple man on simple road
With BUSH CHENEY 2004 poster
Decaying and stubbornly yellowing

~~~~~

Vincent Katz is a poet, translator, and critic. He is the author of eleven books of poetry, including Alcuni Telefonini, a collaboration with painter Francesco Clemente published by Granary Books in 2008. His translations of The Complete Elegies of Sextus Propertius (Princeton) won the 2005 National Translation Award from the American Literary Translators Association.