RUBBER JESUS BUGGY BUMPER

I just love the concept
of a rubber Jesus ...
Kind of like a rubber duckie —
Only Jesus-shaped instead —
To float around in the bath.

It would lend a certain piety
to the whole procedure,
And isn't water
An important token
In Christianity, anyway?

I mean, wasn't it
John the Baptist who got his
name that way, dunking
Christ in the Jordan
To wash away his
nonexistent (or, at least,
pre-forgiven) sins?

We forget,
In the Western world,
The importance of water
To our own mythology, though.

And a rubber Jesus would,
eventually,
mildew, I'm sure.
Unless he was antibacterial.

An antibacterial rubber Jesus.

Aw, hell.

I couldn't be reverent
On threat of being strapped
to a red-hot anvil,
So go ahead and tell me I'm evil.

The longest question
You never heard:

How much screaming
have we all heard
nicely scanned
and set to music
trying to reach to us
trying to tell us
it's all going
down the hole
and how much mannered
poetry
has quietly,
politely told us
that the poet's
liquefied guts
are spilling through
a hole in the basement
of his brain
and still
we want to laugh
and make babies
and throw
away
wrappers
and laugh
and shake hands
and cash our checks
how long
has this
been going
on
and how
much longer
can it?

(What a Friend We Have In)
P.T. Barnum

May America's gods bless her.
Perversion and hate,
Money and television,
The sanctity of the gun
And the narcissism of sex.

God bless America,
The softcore porn
That sells Her kids clothes;
The faintly ichorous tone
Of Her cellular phone ads,
The rank exhaust
Of Her enormous
Sport (extort)
Utility (incivility)
Vehicles. (Hearses.)

She chose to forget Gaia.
For Gaia is old;
Her gods are new,
And have blessedly short 
Memories.
Her gods can forget
That the love of money
Is the root
Of all
Evil.

America has forgotten,
(Blessedly)
And She made these gods
In Her image.
The sanctity of greed,
And the benison
Of violence.

She raises Her gods on sticks,
She waves them
At unbelievers,
And calls them heretics,
And terrorists.
All criticism
Is terrorism.
All cautionary warnings
Are heresy.
There is no global warming.
There is no colonialism.
There is only Disney,
The Gap
And Standard
Oil.
Can I hear an ‘Amen?'
I said,
Can I hear an ‘Amen?'