If you’re not depressed you’re not paying attention
if you’re as young as you used to be you’re not living
this is the greatest country in the world and you know
Agent Orange Head is doing a great job of it Making
America Great (Again) the pandemic will just go away
(again) reopening Uber Alles just like I thought worst
case scenario of all the strong men power on through
it’s a hoax, yes, a pandemic hoax-krieg blitzing it’s way
past all boundaries in blur of speed and adrenaline fuel
invasion of the body snatchers taking always taking over
the people, just those little automatons pulsing up and
down and all around this vast surround of glitter mirror
a jabbing headache between the eyes from confronting
our own images staring back at us on all those screens
zoom awash in flitting info warfare on the decks bobbing
in the foam we’re so lucky on the Titanic such a colossal
loss unprecedented will be remembered so long way after
(if there is an after, after all) how does it feel to be the one
surviving principle imperialist power biggest policy empire
collapse since the plague of 6th century derailed Justinian’s
effort to turn the Mediterranean into Roman lake once more
once more here we are sick man at the helm of sinking ship
                          (of state)

 

James Van Looy has been a fixture in Boston’s poetry venues since the 1970s. He is a member of Cosmic Spelunker Theater and has run poetry workshops for Boston area homeless people at Pine Street Inn and St. Francis House since 1992. Van Looy leads the Labyrinth Creative Movement Workshop, which his Labyrinth titled poems are based on. His work appears weekly in Oddball Magazine.