MILLENIAL MEDITATIONS

 

© Derek Bickerton April 2005

 

Guaranteed 14-20 syllables per meditation

Not available in any store

Assault and battery not included

Comes with free lifetime supply of anomie

 

 

OVERTURE

20th century

too wild and ventury:

21st

yet more accursed

 

 

ALIENATION

we three, we’re not a crowd

we’re not even company

my modem

       my condom

                 and me

 

 

CHILDHOOD

Mark larks in the park

A dark stran-ger makes Mark his mark

He takes Mark into the dark

Hark!

A squawk?

The stran-ger needs ther-a-py

 

 

CITIZENSHIP

Jack be nimble Jack be quick

your gated community’s under attack

so jump in the jacuzzi with your Uzi, Jack

 

 

DIVERSITY

downtown Manhattan–

limo with jacuzzi

glides by soup kitchen

 

 

ECOLOGY

whichever way you cut it

         6 billion

big mammals ion the hoof

         is way too many

for any planet

 

 

GENTILITY

we flee

harsh words

what’s heard

must be

bleached out

dumbed down

we frown

on doubt

honesty

cracks ice

in the pool

of our fool’s

paradise

 

 

INDIVIDUALITY

frantic little ego

twittering in the dark

don’t know what to call you

but you’re mighty like a quark

 

 

MATURITY

Herded in Homes, abandoned by their own,

The Twilight Years become the Twilight Zone.

 

 

MORTALITY

emergency vehicles

howl like wounded beasts

in the night

while I invoke

blander scenarios

for my own fate

 

 

PARANOIA

un tren peut cacher un autre

e pericoloso sporgersi

objects in the mirror are closer than they seem

 

 

RADICALISM

the flat tax flags

faxes are flying

go Pat go

fags kikes and wetbacks

fucked up our buying power

whack them Pat

in Jesus’ name

 

 

RELIGION

Holy Church

put Christ on a perch

then left him in the lurch

adoring schism

abhorring jizzom

 

 

REPRODUCTION

catch a falling sperm-count

plug an ozone pocket

save us for another day

                              (what for?)

 

 

SEMIIDIOTICS

polyglot polymath flaco y seco

sly as a gecko lurks little Sir Eco

 

 

SOCIETY

Humpty Dumpty humped and dumped

         in public as in private

Billy Bennett swore the culture

         never could survive it

 

 

SPORT

proxy jocks

spend big bucks

on stadium boxes

where they suck

to big blacks

they wouldn’t otherwise

give a fuck for

 

 

TECHNOLOGY

in times of ziploc and velcro

where are the ties that bind?

 

 

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

messages fly out

by phone, fax, e-mail

all say the same

help me I’m lonely

nothing makes up for

the death of the tribe

 

 

FINALE

the 21st

may not be the worst

from what I’ve reckoned

count on the 22nd