Poetry

Fibonacci Blue photo

By

I.B. Rad

Freedom of Speech

In some countries

if you express a “prohibited” thought

you’ll be shot, tortured, jailed,

or even wind up

in a gulag

but in America

you can say whatever you please

providing you don’t contradict

a politically correct,

approved set of views,

for if you do

you may be indicted in the news,

shamed on social media,

cowed by mob abuse, shouted down,

gagged by internet ban,

bankrupted through lawsuit, fired,…

until you quickly come to appreciate

our prized liberty includes

the freedom to keep your mouth shut!

Mona Lisa

Basquiat

drolly transformed

“Mona Lisa”

to a grotesque

presidential bust

on a dollar bill;

deriding, at least for me,

our persistent commodification of art.

For despite practitioner pretensions,

currently, market validated art

is a trophy investment

of the uber-rich

and our global culture’s

most profitable venture

into “art appreciation.”

We’re Serving You

Depending on punctuation

(or spoken tone) and context,

many phrases can be interpreted

in more than one way;

for example, “It’s time to eat children”

could mean your kids are on the menu

(one wonders about good taste);

whereas, for “It’s time to eat, children”

the comma underscores

your children are being called to lunch.

To give another example, when politicians claim,

“I’m serving you”

the context suggests those politicians

are working to aid their constituents;

similarly, salespersons saying the same thing

implies they’re catering to your shopping whims

while waiters asserting, “I’m serving you”

conveys they’re about to take your order

or bring it to the table.

But now, come to think of it,

given their legislative past,

whenever any politicians pledge,

“We’re serving you,”

it could just as easily mean

they’re serving you up

on a silver platter

by chiefly pandering to the needs

of plutocratic patrons and special interests.

I.B. Rad

I.B. Rad lives in New York city with Mrs Rad and their valued canine companion. He is widely published with much of his work available on the internet. His book, “Dancing at the Abyss,” was recently published by “Scars Publications.”