Against the Current, No. 188, May/June 2017
By Kim D. Hunter
time has long passed that you could rob the fattest banks in america and spread the money and names of true criminals where either would do the most good
we have lost every secret place where the wind could relieve you of your name where electricity does not swallow light and gently vomit motor noise invisible and deafening
so we must sing other public secrets rent to own paycheck to paycheck hand to mouth
***
ended up on television in the emergency room
waiting to pay
for something fried and unrecognizable
numbers answered every question
if you need safe passage
to be here now
said the nurse
who was almost too tired to breathe
then you must go where they house and warehouse
songs of true love
open kangaroo court prosecution of
black lung power grids
end of life loans
bloated corpse food service
you must visit the library
where you can borrow the mindset
of the one who wrote
he’d give up all his comfort
and sleep out in the rain
if she said that’s the way it ought to be
a museum of lost and untenable rivers
night in the moon’s hands
the no missile defense program
a vaccine
against the scourge of moneysellers
an open mouth kiss
a clearing in the clearing
May-June 2017, ATC 188