Ode to a Failed Nation

Deepfake
Double Entry
Glitchslap in the Matrix
This Machine Creates Fascists
Serial
Staycation Nation

Deepfake

“Man’s search will not be denied.”
- In Event of Moon Disaster

The astronauts of Apollo 11 are epic men
They carry our burdens
They carry our hopes

The astronauts of Apollo 11 are super chill
Rocking thin wire microphones from the future

But the astronauts of Apollo 11 are also clumsy
They fall over and over again

Face first in moondust
All ass backwards

In moonboots

The first moonboots
Known to mankind

Generously coated in the enchanted dirt
That will sell like hotcakes in giftshops

The weightless raspy laughter of these flesh and blood men
Humming little ditties as they tumble with ease
Across the surface of the assumed moon

All the while on the horn
With Houston

Double Entry

I learn Accounting at the school for pregnant girls:

The short bus picks me up at the end
of our driveway. It’s not too early
for the neighborhood to watch.

Ledger paper is the fairest green. I enter fake
numbers for a pretend business
inside columns lined with the leanest brown ink.

Someday I might work in an office.
I must be ready to neatly fill the squares
with real numbers to feed real babies.

Each transaction is given its own row.
Sometimes an asset is a lost crop
or the member of a flock

trapped inside parentheses forever.

Glitchslap in the Matrix

Filled with fanlove
and Big Dad Energy

Will
goes full tilt.

The Academy,
filled with integrity

will
regulate itself.

This Machine Creates Fascists

“A condition that exists when someone has lost control of something,
and no one has replaced them.”

- Cambridge dictionary definition of 'power vacuum'

This machine has the most powerful suction.
This machine has a trigger that releases instantly.
This machine is an animal.
This machine has a sleek design.
This machine is always ready to go.

Notes:

1. All descriptions found in advertisements of Dyson products.
2. (Anecdotally) from MoMA's online collection, the catalogue entry for Dyson vacuum cleaner

Serial

You and your big
dumb luck.

Just the tip
of your index
shot clean off.

Healed up real nice though.
Stub, thick as a thumb.

Here ya go:
a population of lambs
bred and ready
to tremble

for one wild
moment
in your stiff hands.

Staycation Nation

Paranoia

as a first resort,

as the last resort.