MADE FOR YOU AND ME 2: hive Being (Stanzas 2017—part 40)
Let's workshop this stanza sequence about painting, electrocution, kittens, babies, Trump, ghost hunting, courtship, MLK, hazing rituals, frat boys, no homo and yet quite homo, Prozac, kindergarten
scent of the day: Smoke, by Akro (photorealistic cade-centered bonfire smoke, with tad of barbecue in dry down)
gang-raped by the fathers of your kindergarten students taxidermist and painter, freeze-framing a facsimile of life puppy Prozac feathers strewn from fornication and fighting a medium—always “reluctant”—channeling “ethereal pleas” oversold syndromes at least the plastic brick facade had topography withdrawing consent during the final strokes exercise and stop smoking if you want to love longer parental locks and boobytraps on graves to stop necrophilic pedophilia dorm-room dealers innocent surge from the recliner chair to get the door—kitty decapitation hair on end before being struck by lightning let addictions make your life, not ruin it the boring guy no one ever expected the selfie panic to arrest the impermanence only heightened our awareness of it tweens themselves post so much clit abuse—some Truman Show honeypot trap? when you go searching for your father, you are often searching for much more remember when all of us we were master nipple teasers before turning one? her channel really just an infomercial slicker for the modern age, the YouTube did not really detect notes of oak and ylang-ylang in the free bottle she was sent by the company to propagandize in the kneejerk from Trump, nonwhite “truth” (“lived experience”) becomes sanctified, insulated— even (especially?) in college—from all critique if you work in one of those greasy machinist shops, sooner or later— especially when a new hire rolls in—the idea (no homo) will pop up: blasting compressed air, just a quick shot, up a haze-spread rectum you do not go to theaters loaded with tomatoes unless you have an itch to throw them biting the baby’s leg through the padding of lips and yet pushing the limit on the clamp pressure— that was her nursing-room foray into a mosh pit pseudoscience is a gateway to conspiracy thinking: how else do we explain why scientists remain so closed to the evidence that ghosts wail messages in the fuzzy ranges of the AM dial? children log-rolling down hillsides on the 4th of July memories no longer too powerful to write about funeral homes steel reinforced for obese corpses courtships born from horror beauty queens whose mothers were failed beauty queens garbage trucks with a fresh coat of paint eliciting laughter from onlookers at the kegger, dry-humping frat boys moan both in parody and in earnest geniuses like MLK plagiarizing because they lack, not skill, but— understandably—confidence
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 2017 portion of that five-part work.
This fragmentary text presents a surreal and incisive critique of modern society's intersections between banality and horror. By opening with "taxidermist and painter, freeze-framing a facsimile of life," the imagery draws attention to the ways in which we attempt to capture and preserve life, art, and meaning, only to reduce them to static representations. This opening metaphor can be understood as a comment on the desire to hold onto fleeting moments or create permanence in an impermanent world, a theme that reverberates throughout the piece.
As the text moves into absurd and jarring territory—"puppy Prozac," "oversold syndromes," "parental locks and boobytraps on graves to stop necrophilic pedophilia"—it emphasizes the surreal overreactions and moral panics that permeate societal discourse. These moments seem to mock the way we inflate our fears and commodify suffering, whether it be through the over-medication of pets or exaggerated concerns over posthumous violations. There is a recurring theme of commodification and oversaturation, particularly in "her channel really just an infomercial slicker for the modern age," suggesting that even in areas that demand authenticity, such as personal expression, we are manipulated into a consumerist feedback loop.
The critique deepens with the satirical treatment of social and political discourse. Lines like "in the kneejerk from Trump, nonwhite 'truth' becomes sanctified" and "the YouTube did not really detect notes of oak and ylang-ylang" play with the way identity and authenticity are often co-opted or exaggerated for political or commercial gain. In particular, the text points out the insulation of certain narratives from critique, a trend amplified by the platforms that propagate them. This insulation, however, leads not to deeper understanding, but to superficial validation of particular identities or ideas.
The piece also explores personal and societal relationships with trauma and taboo, frequently veering into darker territory. "Withdrawing consent during the final strokes" and "biting the baby’s leg through the padding of lips" suggest boundary-pushing imagery that calls into question the nature of consent and control, both bodily and ideologically. The suggestion that certain behaviors, even in their innocence or intimacy, mask a deeper violence speaks to the fragility of trust and the complexity of human interaction.
The text is further marked by a preoccupation with existential crises and the passage of time. The motif of reflection on past moments—"memories no longer too powerful to write about," "funeral homes steel reinforced for obese corpses," "courtships born from horror"—highlights the way time dulls even the sharpest traumas. Yet, the imagery implies that society has built both physical and mental fortresses to contain these traumas, reinforcing the theme of artificial preservation.
In sum, this piece functions as a dense tapestry of societal, political, and existential critique. Through fragmented, surreal imagery, it interrogates modern responses to trauma, identity, consumerism, and authenticity, all while maintaining a sardonic tone that refuses to let the reader settle into comfort or complacency.
commodification, trauma, authenticity, consumerism, surrealism, societal critique, political discourse, existential reflection, identity politics, moral panic.