Experts shy from instant diagnoses of gunman's mental illness, but hints abound, Hymenoplasty & Recipe for titillation
by Sherry Chandler
[ poetry - september 07 ]
'Experts shy from instant diagnoses of gunman's mental illness, but hints abound'*
"The clips suggest a person with holes in his soul."
He plugged 'em with a nine millimetre Glock,
a steady hand his means of gun control.
Revenge and rhetoric, wormwood, bitter gall,
a magnum spew, chambered, fully cocked,
the clips suggest a Rambo, holes in his soul.
The World Wide Web, the gunshow trader's stall,
or Wal-Mart's display cases, fully stocked,
a steady hand the means of gun control.
The hollow points execute their barrel roll.
Fully automatic, loaded and locked,
the clips suggest a boy with holes in his soul.
Internal combustion, free trade, and a pistol,
a nation in recoil, braced for blowback,
a steady hand a means of gun control.
Metal detectors, eye scans, gates and walls,
all our public buildings barred and blocked,
the clips suggest a people with holes in the soul,
a steady hand our means of gun control.
*Headline from NYTimes online for April 20, 2007
Hymenoplasty
I guess there are some women who
choose surgery,
virginity
as good as new.
But I put the blame on the men.
Missile launchers,
trophy hunters,
they like to win
and don't give much thought to the means.
All's fair in war:
women with scars,
quail with clipped wings.
Recipe for titillation
Take your average streaked-blond co-ed, waxed
smooth and sprayed
tan. Add generic midway peep-
show freaks:
a chalk-faced clown in the house of mirrors, now
you see him, now
a strong man, muscle pythons writhing blue.
Throw in a harvest moon obscured
by scudding clouds,
flicker shadows cast by windblown branches,
a calliope sound track for a carousel.
Sit back now, sip your cabernet, relax
and watch her run,
watch her hide and try to fight, listen
to her aria of shrieks and screams,
savor the flash of nubile flesh.
