As America Falls

As America Falls

Corrupt and dying empire—
In which rewards come to the most
Wicked, while the saintly are locked
Up in solitary confinement,
Midnight madness of an empire
Dying of asphyxiation—
One 20% off sale too many,
One AIPAC whore in Congress
Too many.
An empire not of extraordinary humanity
But of extraordinary human rendition,
Where the kleptocrats
Pilfered the skin off skeletons;
An empire whose bomb strikes
Do not kill but, curiously, set in
Motion the dancing of severed limbs;
An empire lost to its ideals,
Whatever those were.

An empire smitten
With self-adoration—

One pledge of allegiance,
One singing of the National Anthem
Too many; one irradiated
Chicken McNugget, one obese,
Pinky-ringed televangelist
Preacher defending Israel and
Waddling about the Holy Land
With his wife too many—passing
The collection plate in church
And breathing vapidity
From the pulpit at drowsy,
Day dreaming congregants;
One collateralized debt obligation,
One Wall Street investment bank,
One worse-than-Hitler
Terrorist demon lurking
Under the bed too many.
Too many,

An empire…
An empire…

I do not see,
I do not hear,
I do not speak
As the flames sprout from
The horned animal’s head,
It’s closed jaw snapped open;
An equatorial dead zone
Which used to have its own
Constitution until the case
Where the document was kept
Was broken into and the
Parchment eaten by vultures.
Empire!!!!!!!
Where the Christians became
As the bull constantly confused
By the waving of the red cape
Of the Zionist matador—and we know
What happens to the bull in the end…

Hollywood surprise ending:

He gores the matador.

By Richard Edmondson