(consider

where you get your truth kids

I buy mine

from jon stewart and bill maher,

bukowski and ginsberg,

because they swear

on something other than the bible

which is refreshing

and exactly what I want

from my preachers.)

“It is difficult

to get the news from poems

yet men die miserably every day

for lack

of what is found there.”

William Carlos Williams,

bitches.

at a time when

wars were human

and making life was still

divine.

but I’m not nostalgic,

shit no.

I just take

the sugar

they feed me

with a bowl’s worth of

salt.

consider

what you put

in your mouth.

dicks will leave you empty

most of the time

dicks will leave you

pills were not made

for thinking

but they’ll kiss you a little while.

and every one has empty words

empty words

ready for you

on their syllabi

between their teeth

on the box

in your family room

behind their desks

reading from the prompter

I get

my violence

where it hurts

the most.

death means nothing

unless you haven’t lived.

and the poets tell me

(the good ones anyway)

to fuck and fight for it

blow my mind and blow

deeper

for something as close to freedom

as we’re ever gonna get.

this revolution

will be poeticized

I’m sure.

but a riot will deafen

and metal is mute.

the boys are the first to go

in their fatigues…

who will be left

to make us come?

if you don’t write this down

the world will end:

what is it

you really desire?

I want

my tongue back

and someone to love,

a line to move me

and real time with bill maher.