bugbears & ballyhoo

watching pandas not watching us
during the pandemics

dying hours

70 lbs of bamboo please
appear
in the dark every night

pandas are as pandas do
& so on & so forth
& panda this & panda that
the opiate of the moment

a pandemic
oblivious
rages out of control

a national zoo soldiers on
while the rare pumpkin war pig
breathes pure oxygen
& monoclonal antibodies course
through oxidized pipes built on slave labor
& dirt cheap h2s

hail caesar

eat ur salad boys & girls
this is how we do
now

strive for narcissism
sink to megalomania
wallow in egocentrism
get high on ur own supply of solipsism

dont play nice
no amends
go to church
dont say please

demand
obfuscate
create ur own reality

kids

have you ever wanted a reset

ever wished upon a star

or that a meteor would hasten
the sixth extinction

it can
no it will
happen again

let it be loosed & hurtle toward us
today
let us not cry & lament
let us not go gentle into that good oblivion

let us rage at the angels
after weve dispensed
with each other

we wait with pounding hearts
for the cosmic rock to hit

let us not regret & not regret
& not regret
what we inflict on ourselves
& our planet

ringed in ocean trash
lapping at our chins
& space junk gyring by our heads

the hole in the sky
opens ever wider

extremists
the uber rich
the dirt poor
& all the rest of us growing fat
& stupid on the teat of technology
& ideas alien

we look upon one another
& perceive dangerous strangers
monsters

please bring the grand cosmic rock
we need the reset
now

“Just cuz you get to the end doesn’t mean you know what happened.”

— Karen Tei Yamashita