W.B. Keckler

Steelton
has a joke
about the queer
ways of the world.
It says:
Let the sons
of steelworkers
be poets
who love the couch
as much as they
love Ginsberg,
and the sons
of poets
be spectacled
businessmen,
hardcore
Republicans
who love
dictating behavior,
and the sons
of these Republicans
be total hippies
who believe
work was invented
by the Devil,
and that way
we shall all
surely learn to love
one another
through the crashing
of many plates
on our kitchen
floors, the smashing
of windows,
and the occasional
firing of warning shots
over one another's heads
into refrigerators,
stereo systems,
and big-screen
televisions
playing 'Cops.'