|
While a woman in white waits upriver |
standing |
| in the distance
her minion is |
|
|
by my side pushing me underwater |
and while he’s |
| drowning
or baptizing me, |
|
|
helpless for a breath, I’m sensing in her |
presence |
| a vague
incorporeal |
|
|
familiarity, her intentions |
less |
| religious or malicious
than just |
|
|
spiritual, yet, dammit, I’m about to |
breath water |
| and
that’s malicious enough! |
|
|
As I panic, a column of air |
between the water’s |
| surface
and my mouth |
|
|
forms, or my assailant may be blowing |
air |
| into my lungs.
My arms waving like |
|
|
a baby, I awaken grateful, shaken. |
|
State of the Disunion
After the rebuttal’s rebuttal
we can watch secondhand reprimands
from technocrat-fed commentators
whose scripted questions and answers
are inflated in significance
based on ratings we as the audience bestow
with a generally nettlesome blessedness,
depending on whose side we are watching
and whose side we are on.
Whether we believe what is said
and are incredulous about the disbelievers,
or do not believe what is said
and are incredulous about those who believe,
we are all resting our heads
on the side of a spurious luxuriance
given the fact that nothing feeds us
better and fatter than the fodder
of our endless righteous indignations.
Our ruminations duplicate the well-fed
decadent ancient royals and nobles
whose high, reclining sofas
were designed with high tables
to align their food at the same height
as their mouths, so they could
gorge and lounge easily
feeding at the same decadent height
as the screens feeding us now.
About the Poet
The poetry of Peter A. Manos has appeared in The New York Times, Yellow Chair Review, Provo Canyon Review, Elohi Gaduji Journal, Atlanta Review, Prolific Press, Avocet Review, and elsewhere. Peter is the author of a monthly “Smart Utilities” column in Transmission & Distribution World Magazine, and is a consultant in the renewable energy and electric utility industry. He has a BA in Philosophy from Vassar College, and a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MBA in Marketing and Finance from NYU.