Poem: On the Toilet

 

On the Toilet

 

in my hands National Geographic

decreeing that Neanderthal practiced cannibalism,

based on marks on femurs—

 

or perhaps, the article twists,

our ancestors enjoyed a few ribeyes

before pushing N.’s dregs

off Iberia.

 

in the corner, amaryllis

(says tape on pea-green pot)

leers like a gaggle

of embarrassed victrolas,

 

flirty fuchsia

not too sauced to blush

at spread knees and dropped denim,

 

my impudent nonchalance.

 

next page, Utah,

boastful of Mormon and petroglyph.

it turns out, the author bleeds,

that the white man

knows very little about what

he extinguished—

 

as i flush.

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This poem was originally published in Poetic Diversity in 2009.  I am republished poems in this blog, as well as adding new ones, trying to create a fuller body of my extensive work.  At some point, I should start printing all these poems out, to have hard copies, in case of disaster.  But printers are expensive and perhaps my poems and I will just go down together.

"he" represents the bellicosity immaturity of patriarchy, which has owned civilization since the very start, refusing to let us evolve to higher levels of ethics tech--though the original, ancient Big Lie of sexism is being challenged in our times (last few hundred years..).  These are exciting times, in which ethics technology will evolve, or we will annihilation ourselves via chest-thumping, narcissistic macho ignorance.