Thursday, September 04, 2008

Cataphract

(Closer?)

Sergeant Iraq beams in
to the Midwest beer garden

Suicide mantras raining down
from the podium of the RNC

Son, repeat after me

You’re on a mission from God

I’ll have a sniper rifle and a side
of two handguns, please

You are the Ark of the Covenant

The cup-shaped, hollowed out man-baby,
picture of the Father, fills like a catacomb

I’m ready to receive

Tell me, slowly, about the fleas

The Christians will be persecuted

Sergeant Iraq begins his
masterpiece weave

for the up and coming guild
of PTSD

3 comments:

ctm said...

Much, much better, though I'm still not certain about the Derek line. It's just about there...

Charmi said...

Yes. The Derek line. I'm actually thinking about 1 Samuel right now. There's a section starting in Chapter 4 where the Israelites misuse the Ark of the Covenant in order to propel their war machine. Things did not go well for anyone involved. But just like it is hard to use myths with authority in poetry, it is also hard to make convincing biblical analogies. However...

ctm said...

Biblical allusions are difficult to pull off. I'm not certain how I'd try it--obliquely, probably.