What Rough Beast | Poem for May 12, 2017

Robert Carr
Bannon’s Weapon

I’m afraid you’ve missed the point
of my weapon. The hand knit ears
of your pink pussy won’t protect you.

And you, cocksucker, handcuffs pulled
from a dusty box, your chained to fence memento,
will not ACT UP.

I wear you, nylon on a hairy leg, sip a coffee,
wait for brushed silver chairs
to fly through Starbucks windows.

I wait for that clit crusader wearing floppy ears
to soak herself in gasoline and drop
a match.

I wait for you to demonstrate your madness,
to bite my German Shepard.

You know you want to. The point—my weapon
documents your holes. Key that Ford truck idling
in your neighbor’s drive, burn the mini-flag

flying from the antennae.
I will gladly pay for your damage,
replace stripes, the stars. And you.

Robert Carr is the author of the chapbook Amaranth (Indolent Book, 2016). Recent work appears in Assaracus, Bellevue Literary Review, Kettle Blue Review, New Verse News, Pretty Owl Poetry, Radius Literary Magazine, White Stag, and other publications. He lives with his husband Stephen in Malden, Massachusetts, and serves as Deputy Director for the Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Robert is an associate editor at Indolent Books, a nonprofit poetry press in Brooklyn. His poetry, book reviews, and upcoming events can be found at robertcarr.org.

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