Shapes of Wrath
A quartet of poetic rebellion.
Readers,
I have a theory about Luigi Mangione, about why he decided to take a prominent CEO’s life. Maybe it’s not a well-thought one, but here it is: Loss of privilege. And by that I mean the loss of perceived and/or realized power.
Because it’s really weird to hear of someone so well set up in life decide to commit unprovoked broad daylight murder, right? Male. White. Born into wealth. A valedictorian of the best educational conditions possible. Driven Ivy League graduate. Lucrative tech career. Young. Good looks. Physically fit.
No barriers. Everything going for him.
But then life happened. Permanent injury visited his world.
And while I can only speculate, I think chronic pain and disability after living such a frictionless life was a heavy blow. His taken-for-granted worldview popped.
Maybe for the first time he realized he was vulnerable. His value and promise had taken a hit. Maybe he started to feel the many layers of cold cultural disposability his injury marked upon him.
Maybe he got a taste of the world the rest of us live in and did not like it?
Realization. Desperation. How was he going to shine now? How was he going to “seize the day”? How was he going to feel powerful and make his mark upon the world? Maybe by finding a relatable inspirational figure in mathematics prodigy Theodore Kaczynski? Maybe by becoming a vigilante folk hero?
Take down a Big Boss. Make your name indelible.
It doesn’t matter if Luigi’s loss was perceived or realized or a mix between the two. His sense of self was tightly wound around excelling and winning, of things going his way. One chink in that armor was enough for it to all fall apart.
Maybe he succumbed to this fragility.
Because deliberate violence, especially that which seeks to end another’s life, is the rawest expression of the desire for power. At least he chose a true menace as a target for his yearning for control and mastery.
Making human lives isolated and desperate, constantly dividing and deceiving them, all while living in a country that worships power and guns, it’s only a matter of time before something like this happens (ask all the dead schoolchildren).
The surprise was who was involved this time. Both the perpetrator and victim were the anomalies. Sure, a lone white man shooting others is so common as to be cliche in America, but violent upper class on upper class crime? That’s unusual. That’s weird.
But for this hypervigilant mind, any unsympathetic thoughts for the murder of a dark triad CEO were short lived because my mind is always seeking to be five steps ahead of present conditions. We live in empire. Such events are seen as precedent to the powerful. Now they have the excuse to escalate. No need to pretend anymore. Having public police forces in the pocket to protect capital is not enough. Time to spend some of those piles of profit on private armies.
I don’t know. Maybe my theory is weak. Misplaced.
I do know that as everything continues to break down, there will be no self-reflection or correction from those responsible, from those who hold power. They will only tighten their grip to preserve their position and privilege.
The current order has allowed astounding avarice to consolidate and rule so the benefactors will continue to shore it up until it all collapses. In the meantime, prepare for escalating austerity and brutality for you and I.
Law and Order is about to get a lot darker. Get ready.
(The following poems have been edited from their published versions. You can find out more about why I’m doing this by clicking the link below.)
Surfing between terror and absurdity,
—C
The Inevitable Outcome of Too Much Coffee and Eminem
The consequences come, they always do At first a tiny trickle, then KA-BOOM We’re senseless, our denial endless The elected busy scheming for power Wasting time, yo, it’s the last fucking hour The electorate pissing, moaning Jerking off in the Facebook shower Sold on serving elites as a noble cause Following profits and frauds, demagogues On bended knees they grovel, pledge and plea Our burdened children will curse in dismay When the whole planet is in disarray In the darkness bright as day they’ll say, “The stupid assholes saw it coming but all they did was argue, blame, and pray.” We’d rather be consumed with who is gay The tits and ass on the Hi-Def display Foaming at the mouth, we shout “DON’T TOUCH MY GUNS, DOG” Our reason lost in an idiot-fog Dead inside, murdered by ego and pride In lies and fiction we run and hide Ashamed to admit something’s deeply wrong History, a circle-jerk double dong Easier, better to just follow along Keep robbing tomorrow to pay for today Just like with the natives, then the slaves Jim Crow, segregation, and the KKK Selective memory, Columbus Day The exceptional American Way Stop taking hits off the bullshit pipe I’m warning you now, don’t believe the hype We never stopped building pyramids, fool They hide in plain sight and you’re just a tool Now they’ve become nation-corporations Stroking billionaires’ expectations Total capture their greatest exaltation Profit their vital moral motivation Without their guidance, they say we’d be lost To abandon them, nope, too high a cost Hey, did your bejeweled cell phone just ring? Wait, I know the lyrics to that—one, two, three “Go on, buy a new thing, buy a new thing Sweet honky Jesus, the comfort it will bring” A catchy ditty, our anthem, you see A birth to death dream-song inside a meme This, all of it, the story our culture sings Without it, what would we, what could we be? Refusal and Abandonment are my pleas Tear down the curtains, let the sunlight set us free
The Course of Empire
“My power,” they announced So ego raged And the pyramids grew And from the tip they ruled Dispatching ships to the four corners of the world With trumpets declaring war unending "This is your place,” they commanded So women knelt to their whim And lead lives dimmed As they swallowed men’s sin Their autonomy dismissed, Now just bodies for pleasure and breeding “My sacred way,” they claimed So laws were created And White God sanctified And holy word justified And sinner lives crucified Belief defining whose lives reigning “My superiority,” they reasoned So shackles were forged And tribes destroyed And families maimed And the severed remains enslaved Generations of wounding cascading “My ownership,” they demanded So the trees were felled And the lands bordered And the oceans scoured Their make-believe defining The value of everything “My entertainment,” they cheered So the animals were caged And violence peddled And shock worshiped And sex warped Pleasures for the numbness of being “The horror,” we cried So our voices roared And the volumed soared And an unexpected chorus forged Our minds are changed We are chanting, “NO MORE!”
The Curse of Man
A heart empty, how can it be heavy? So heavy that I can’t wake from bed’s sleep So heavy ribs weep So heavy every beat Oh no, here comes more— Pain's high wail Grief’s guttural retch Loss’s artery cut Absence pulsing out in liters Across rejection’s sterile floor Curse history’s men May they rot from the inside out For violating and ravaging All that is beautiful and tender Turning me bitter and untrusting Making me to grow thorns I want to breathe free Instead, I’m bound by the scars men left Stained with the blood of their conquests Choked by their song of wrongs Their sword chained to my hand Constant, my struggle to disband Why must I suffer the consequence of their sins? Fight the ghosts of their violence? No more bombs and guns No more wounded sons No more I want to love and be loved
Let’s Summon Demons (and Other Fuckery)
This isn’t how it has to be. We’ve been bred to comply and listen even when we apply thought and reason, we’ve been bound within a frame of vision. It’s time to dig out the scrolls of sorcery and alchemy, crack open the tomes on alternate realities. Pour over the Rebel’s Codex and the Psalms of Protest, study the Fundamentals of Functional Fuckery. We don’t have to live in a world where deviation is condemned as impossibility and heresy, were doom flows inevitably to the Sea of Complicity, ABANDON THE MACHINERY! If they want to damn us with gods, hide behind the boots of their demagogues as they wave flags and write harsher laws So be it Now is the season LET’S SUMMON DEMONS!
Thanks for reading. And now, your moment of Zuul.
