dialog with myself invariably involves others
we are all perceivers nobody escapes
no really and truly trust me on this
no manufacturing of childish evasions
maybe it is best to be born into a family
able to generate family values
ablaze with comfort and sanitation
lost in a forest of memories
amusingly arrayed for shoppers
exactly like the TV version
fortunately I was in touch
with my inner juvenile delinquent
unlettered by any known normalcy
nor crazed by the expectation of gold
or even gold paint from a rattle can
our default addiction to pleasure
is no random Darwinian accident
we really do learn to act from movies
no really and truly trust me on this
our tune is a complicated little number
bassooned in several keys at once
upon your mother's pedestal is one of them
between cognition and reflex is another
in the clue farm keyhole universe
I may need an ax to free my thoughts
just so I can play dumb
in a trail blazing effort to avoid
media suppression by the CIA
the Clairvoyant Intelligence Agency
chronically in for interrogation
OK let's play who's more paranoid
if this poem is minus the above line
then it has been tampered with
a million hand sewn Humpty Dumpty
vital nerve connections later
sutured like Frankenstein's test dummy
a bungee cord full of existential tension
I seem to be strapped to a microscope
behavior can also be modified
by better info if you let it
how's that for mind warfare
pretty propaganda pretty pretty
for the young and the innocent
left screaming in a gas station toilet
wrapped in today's newspaper
comics section puzzle page
how long can the charade continue
when autonomous is still an illegal word
this is an audience participation piece
from the Federal Pencil Council
and for the terminally nostalgic
the night arched quietly above

From "Pageant of Naked Mischief" available on Amazon