Sunday, February 21, 2010

Man, a rag

Lucifer's cardinals are blowing pink smoke
again. They've picked their ping-pong pontiff,
to the joy of throngs watching patient brick stacks
remotely on brightly monitored feeds.

The Chosen One, festooned in a make-shift
milk-carton miter plastered with photos
of never-lost souls, climbs atop his Coke-can
throne to declare, "I'm likable law made flesh!"

Then, this dystopic pope, turning to his scroll
wailer, sotto voce warns, "I am a weakish
speller, but read it as best you can,"
and hands her paper-clipped parchment.

Catty smile petting her with purrs of "nice
smug me," the tonsil-crowned crier takes it
and leaps to heroes glide down where his nonsense
cannon of ten misrules is to be revealed.

Meanwhile, back up on Earth, Man, a rag
doll in hand and aching from the expert prick
of voodoo-dabbling God's exactingly pinned
scraps, all wincing "Who do you think you are?"

Approaches the coaxial saint who sits in
a simulated wood-grain box and beams
beacons of haloed pixels phishing for fools
in search of non-queasy forgiveness.

Man fits to a T-S-A that anesthetic
profile. He pulls from his pocket prescriptions
slipped to him by back-alley preachers
with promises of a tidier healing.

For few coins, he gets his video-dispensed
penance: a rosary of disposable beads
he'll rub once, toss, and return to that life
perpetually stuck on truancy.

Francis Scudellari

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh man, this was one of the funniest poems I ever read. The piece moves from one edge to another, and it has such integrity.

Jenny said...

There is so much happening on different levels simultaneously in this one. An exciting richness of nuances, razor sharp observations, a solid structure and it is very comical. A splendid piece.

The Scrybe said...

I agree with Jenny, and "picked their ping-pong pontiff"! I'm not sure if I've said this before; I love alliteration, especially when it involves the letter 'p'.

Francis Scudellari said...

Thanks all. I'm glad the humor worked. There's a less obvious joke buried in it. The title is an anagram of "anagram" and I've used several other anagrams of people's names. The first two words are my own name scrambled.

Anders Enochsson said...

Well, this is a wonderful piece. You show yourself in possession of an extraordinary mind's eye. Thanks!

Francis Scudellari said...

Thanks Ande. I think that my eye is much better at seeing outward than it is inward :).

The Scrybe said...

Anagrams! The attention to detail makes this more special.

Akeith Walters said...

What a great grand blend of ideas and images.