MADE FOR YOU AND ME 1: hive Being (Stanzas 2016—part 11)

Let's workshop this stanza sequence, which includes Saartjie Baartman proto-twerking on tour, eyes in kid porn, athletes fudging parts of the national anthem, Klansman sheets turned blue in the wash

do you really wish your rapist would have just killed you?

perhaps whale-oiled up, Sarah Baartman no doubt
was “asked” to perform on her European tour
proto-versions of what would become the twerk 

whereas violent lyrics in rock are “fictional”
violent lyrics in rap are “autobiographical”
and so usable against the singer in court!?

an ad—say, for Interstate batteries—
triggering the jingle of the competition: 
♫ “Built to last . . . Duralast” ♫

driving right on by the homes
of long unseen family and friends
unaware of your being in town

white (and black) men demoralized for not being black in the bedroom

finding yourself really interested 
after years of what you realize now 
was only faked interestedness

remorse indicates that what you did 
was not bad enough 
to be blocked from mind

liver spots grow 
on the beach—bodies 
leak blood milk urine

painful breast pumps from formula companies 

teens stroking often 
to their birth films,
collapsing to the side in guilt

the corner beggar, querulous about
“the fuzziness,” insults the technique
behind the muffler you knitted him

drawn to male lovers driven to drop
dreams for yours, but then repulsed 
by the deflated selves that result

people cry about the hypocrisy of states
where guns are legal and dildos are not,
but both laws stem from male insecurity 

only fakes bend spoons as debunkers do

♫“Transgenders—
more than meets the eye”♫ 
(sung in the Transformers theme)

the parts between the big events that make 
life worth living—how do you resolve 
the ambiguity of reference here? 

tears streaming after his death not so much 
from loss, but more so to prove—to yourself, 
most of all—your being worth his great love

even if life would be intolerable
without tragedy, such tragedy
need not be in the form of injustice

enjoying simply the dramatic tones
of their quarrel, unable to make out
any words through the motel wall

ripping phone books in half for Christ

troll-farmed by enemy countries to believe what we do  

transfixed in strange postures

the eyes of the child in porn

rehearsed apologies never performed

the hands-on-the-hips of exhaustion

small talk with those whom you have already fucked

more likeable after the coma than before

is it arrogant to pursue things that interest no one?

the medalist mouths the anthem 
of her country on the podium, 
faking unknown bits for cameras 

the lecturer’s vibrance being met
with student apathy gives the scene—
lighthearted, at first glance—a troubling air

a dark heap of insect bodies
in the glass dome cover
of the ceiling-light bulb

talk about them often enough 
and the events of your history 
seem to turn numb, unreal 

to heal—is that why you reflect on how
torn up those who love you must have been,
and must still be, about what they did?

mocking the superstitions of a culture
about which we learn from the descendants
of those controlled by such superstitions

the more aware of how 
good it can be, the more
some artists are tortured

mistaken for what one is

ransacked cadavers

that rogue sock turning Klansman sheets blue in the wash

when maharishis turn out to be just dirty old men

suited up for a night out, his wife
small-talking the sitter downstairs, 
he scribbles his rushed idea

the scalpel jab sends spray ten feet
from the back cyst then milked 
of what seems mashed potatoes

it being a fight to stay true to her 
as it is, how much worse is it, really,
to mess around now and then?

bored because fear keeps you 
from doing anything, but fearing 
so as to keep from getting bored

you cannot be an alcoholic, of course,  
if you do yoga, live vegan, and can tell
notes of tobacco from notes of oak 

pieces of taxidermy 
banged up and dented
from fits of passion

This is a portion of an ongoing mosaic poem called Made for You and Me. This portion is from the first installment: hive Being (Stanzas 2016-2020). More specifically, it is from the 2016 portion of that five-part work.

Photo: bbc.com/news/magazine-35240987