seasons gratings (for Hank)

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oh it's coming again
like the guillotine straight
for the neck
like the hammer that must
eventually smash the thumb

we are forced
to endure it
on the radio
the same twenty songs
recorded over and over
and over again
each more covered in
slime than the
last time
someone else
recorded them

it's coming
oh it's coming again
as inevitable as a
train wreck in India
or the bulging red
pimple on the nose
before the first date

we are
forced to endure it
in the streets
choking on it
on the highways
and in parking lots

we are
forced to endure it
in the stores
a shiny candy shitstorm
of gold & red & green
and shoulders bumping
and people in fights
needing to
fill and be
filled up
with
the things that
they are told
they must own

oh
it's coming
again
and every year
it starts earlier

I ask my wife
it's still October right?

I used to think so
she says
soon this crap will
roll out in June

oh yes
it's coming
and right before
it does
the idiots will flood the
world and smash their
bodies and cars
into each other
as if they had forgot
it was coming

I never forget
because by then
I am stocked up with wine
and Camel cigarettes
and have locked
all the windows and doors
avoid the TV
and the radio

my ark against the flood
of a tide of stupidity

it began with religion
& it has become a
religion of its own
yes it has and
I know you've all
heard this one:

HE KNOWS WHEN YOU ARE SLEEPING
HE KNOWS WHEN YOU'RE AWAKE
HE KNOWS IF YOU'VE BEEN BAD OR GOOD
SO YOU BETTER BE GOOD FOR GOODNESS SAKE

this sounds
innocent enough
but this
this terrified me as
a child having just
had my catechism
I would lay in bed
Saturday afternoon
thinking
so there are two
two of those
bastards
judging me now

now Miley Cyrus sings
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
with her tits hanging out and it's
available at Walmarts everywhere

well
stick that up your ass
jam it hard
and the catechism
and the mistletoe too

merry fucking Christmas

this is my card
to you and I didn't
even have to
waste a stamp
to mail it

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