Let's Not Get It Together

The world has become corrupted

from our hearts

to the way our gods love us

as if they know they’re already dying

and they’re determined to drag us down with them

 

and just like a flagpole in winter

demanding our affection

we’ve stuck our tongues to their ancient religions

leaving us dumbstruck and blinded

by the eye cons of the icons

that have kept us from seizing the truth

 

but what that truth is I don’t know

I have enough trouble

figuring out

which day is garbage day

after

a statutory holiday

 

the rules of this world make little sense

every day brings us more reasons

to remain in our caves

feral, angry and abandoned

in a kingdom we feel lost in and abused by

 

and here’s the thing about a king,

at its best

royalty is novelty

at its worst

it’s oppressive

and our love

must be more impressive

than that

 

 

brothers and sisters

the magnificent

gender-bending binary fisters

let’s be moved by the ooh

and wowed by the ahh

let’s bathe in the wonder of the blunder

that created us

the cosmic giggle

that leaves us laughing and asking

what are we doing here?

who’s driving this bus?

 

I don’t know, and neither do they

who say that they do

so what’s a sacrilegious trickster to do?

why not try on a new shoe to see if it fits?

so, I posit this pickle, I float out

this feather

 

my friends

let’s not get it

together

 

you and I, me and we, let’s build

a sacred union of confusion

a family of the flummoxed and flabbergasted

a perpetual party of the puzzled and perplexed

a beautiful band of the befuddled and bemused

blathering a grand and boisterous bafflegab

 

poets!

 

wide-eyed, slack-jawed and drooling

slapping our foreheads with vigour

and distinction

 

let’s not get it

together

 

this is your permission slip

to be human not horrible

the pressure’s off

we don’t understand

we’ll never figure it out

there’s no need to worry about

whether

 

you are good enough

 

for the gods we’ve created

denying our perfections, grasping at flaws

to prove the world right that we’re wrong

 

let’s go skinny-dipping

in the river of creation

inquisitive salmon asking the most

embarrassing questions

I surrender myself

with awe and devotion

  see what happens

when the wheels come off

 

let’s not get it

together

Bibliographical info

RC Weslowski "Let's Not Get it Together" from My Soft Response to the Wars. Copyright © 2021 by RC Weslowski. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

 

Source: My Soft Response to the Wars (Write Bloody North, 2021)

 
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