Jason Bargueno

 

 

the day the flag became a barcode

veterans lined up for free stickers

they stuck them to their cars

they gave them to their children

they filled up their tanks

they drove to the malls and stores

overcome with joy at the barcodes

on each and every selection

but the day came when the enemy

slapped barcodes on their turbans

the armies, they slammed together

in a violent discussion over numbers

after their own numbers thinned

each side limped back home

and looking at their own barcodes

wondered why the barcodes

didn’t just fight for their own

 

 

  +++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

 

through a window crack
i see destinations and
the people they pull

squeak of the floorboards
years of pressure added up
someday i will squeak

 

“circling the drain”:
what a lovely way to say
death is near, okay?

if everything comes
from the same clump of atoms
then i am jesus