Poetry

roya ann miller photo

By

I.B. Rad

Original Sin

America,

not wanting to whitewash history,

from our Appalachian holler

I renounce my white privilege

and beg forgiveness

for the white guy’s hereditary sin

of being history’s sole perpetrator

of genocide, slavery, war,

sexism, racism, imperialism, colonialism,

and most other toxic isms.

So then, please God,

in my next iteration

might I be reborn

minority American female

(Latino, Asian, African, or…,)

so I can “go

and sin no more.”

They’re serving you

Straight from governance and advertising,

here’s a prime recipe

for dispensing sizzle

instead of steak:

• Take a slice of nothing
• Garnish with mouth watering terms
• Serve piping patriotically
• Bribe fawning sycophants to certify your beef!

But don’t stew. To heighten your dining pleasure

they’re serving you

that internationally publicized special,

“freedom of speech,”

a platter of sanctimonious baloney

stuffed with first amendment bull

and anyone who’ll swallow that

never goes hungry!

Parallel lives

Mostly poetry touches on

the human condition,

love, angst, hate, war, religion,…

even so, on a cosmic scale,

since the universe

gets along quite nicely without us,

it could just as well complain,

‘Everything’s not about you!’

So why then

can’t a leaf

fall from a tree

without intimating

aging and death

or a wave

sweep up on a beach

without erasing someone’s footprint?

Well, to be fair,

Isn’t every species horizon

at least partially bound by its needs?

Don’t birds have territorial disputes

in ‘our’ yards;

and does a spider worry about

spinning its web

in ‘your’ house,

or a tapeworm

show the slightest contrition

over human suffering

as contrasted to enjoying

a good lunch?

I.B. Rad

I.B. Rad lives and plays in New York City. This somewhat controversial poet is widely published with much of his work available on the internet. His most recent book, “Dancing at the Abyss” was published by Scars Publications.”