Five political poems by Mark Prejsnar

Five poems
by Mark Prejsnar

rant 2

we need violence violence violence and TV
we want to kill the other because it
makes the hate in the hate in the blood run and the blood run
the window
& we
don't know we need violence violence and TV we need violence and TV
we we we need
violence and other people blood
the blood
the date of the blood
how dust
finished off thought
we need

++++++++++++++++++++

rant 3

how to feel they outlaw
feelings the feeling the outlawed in the
back of the mind the gun
makes me feel the flag and the hate
they make me feel something
they outlaw feelings
the lout law of feelings
it’s as plain as day
& the mind slips

how to feel something the feel the gun
makes me feel for the outlaw of feelings
& plain as day the mind slips
how to feel feelings they outlawed in the outlaw ?
guns don’t kill feelings
people kill feelings
feel the flag and the back of
they make me flag and the back of the feel and
something’s plain they outlawed something plain
once more
w. feeling

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

instant poem 10

they have lots of ads for this war you know
with new words the kids can learn
and valuble prizes and broadway shows

in my father’s mansion are many gas chambers
forest green
hanging there like the dust
from a collapsing bank

plotted along a single graph line
you have to reorient every few minutes
according to yr bookish nature

you have to ask how many times
do the colors shift

sailing across the fairy tale desert
on yer way to the turkey shoot
climb into the ship and voyage across the
Nau Sea

we hold these tombs to be self evident
in the nite many things many things
whisked away.... if you still feel anything
where the bomb craters were and are and
will be
honk

=================

instant poem 11

log troll mind system instant cash
crash clash-like finder in the middle of
the screen a tombstone every smile
fork over intro to these vex
expunge what it is in clear and unambiguous
turn up the group of words which is
the best of all possible outcomes
in the clear air flown simmer
log troll mind inherent to retreat
into the landscape where the count’s castle
is pinpointed we don’t need
M-16s when we’re up to our ears in
anchorpersons with slithery grin
and the weight on the deck gives way to the
land of nod and the trembling hand

a class system is only as good as the lies
it can get you to buy with your
hard lost savings in the middle of the
broadcast here are the jobs
you get blink blink
blink a focus on the flag
a troop of baboons
this only a test

++++++++++++++++++

closing psalm

war is our salvation we shall not want
it leadeth us to lie down in blooded structures
our feelings are kept out of the picture
the daily bread is covered with grinning
men are from venus women are from saturn
& plutocrats are from pluto
war is our salvation we shall not want
it leadeth us to lie down in blooded strictures
it leadeth us to drive in the alleyways
& protects us from unamerican death
with robot systems to kill our cartoon fears
from the sky -- lo ! where we need never see
or feel the reality of another nation—
war is our shepherd
it leadeth us to accept
our deadened eyes and our empty pockets—
lo though we walk through the valley
of the shadow of the real, we shall not see it
for ours is the kingdom & the glory
in perfect ignorance
for ever and ever
amen

Author bio:

Mark Prejsnar was born and grew up in Stockbridge, in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts. He’s lived in many different parts of the US and Brazil. For a while in Atlanta he was editor of the poetry magazine Misc. Proj. Then, about 10 years ago, he helped found the Atlanta Poets Group, a small ensemble which gives performances, publishes their work in various formats, and edits & publishes Spaltung, a poetry mag drawing on the work of poets from around the country. Prejsnar’s poems have appeared in various periodicals and he has published several chapbooks. Despite the enormous wealth his poetry brings him, he also works as a librarian (just for the hell of it).