Police
Convention
Eyes
and ears locate and identify
misbehavior
and apply
the
appropriate institution.
Drones
tag with labels rebellion
in
the spleen or with arms.
If
not video cameras, then the sleeping
commuter
taking the subway
should
prompt docile but capable
from
the punk with the spray paint.
The
slums fill with artwork
desperate
to speak to Justine.
Family,
schools, police service
the
greater and lesser states
with
pillowcases filled with oranges,
knuckle
measurements,
and
solitary refinement.
Probes
prod the less-than or more-than
for
the hinges along the backbone.
The
training wheels stay on
so
the do-it-yourself kits
won’t
need to kick in.
The
mantras for every sense
don’t
distract but erase perspective
and
focus envy on goods and services.
Any
way among the matrix
leads
to the dream that runs amuck.
Rich
Murphy's first book was
The Apple in the Monkey Tree
(Codhill
Press). His
second book
Voyeur
was
published in 2009 (Award Winner 2008, Gival Press).
His
chapbooks include Family
Secret
(Finishing
Line Press), Hunting
and Pecking
(Ahadada
Books), Phoems
for Mobile Vices
(BlazeVox),
Rescue
Lines
(Right
Hand Pointing) and Great
Grandfather
(Pudding
House Publications). Recent poetry may be found in
Pennsylvania
Review, Fjord Review,
Otoliths,
Epiphany, Euphony, The Straddler, James Dickey Review, and
Trespass. Recent
prose scholarship on poetics has been published in Imaginary
Syllabus, Anthology chapters, Palm Press, Journal of the Assembly for
Expanded Perspectives on Learning, The International Journal of the
Humanities, Fringe Magazine, Reconfigurations: A Journal of Poetry
and Poetics, The Journal of Ecocriticism, Folly Magazine, Imaginary
Syllabus, and
“Reading Wisdoms: Mick Jagger, W.B.Yeats, and Gayatri Chakravorty
Spivak” will be published by
New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of
Creative Writing.
