Belated Mention Of Grudges Often Lead To Dismissal Poem by Cunctus Cope

“Every seedy upbringing contributed to this seedy night.”
Cries the Lord of this industrious shire
I walk past lowlifes and spot a mourning mother
Subtly weeping over her loss to the fire
I try to ignore the pauper and the pleasure shakers
Sprinkling lust though they’re labeled “desire”
I step unto the porch of one I thought I loved
When I figured I could take someone higher
Debating my rhetoric, I gaze at the pretty roses
To calibrate my course from cacophonic to curt
I am now aware that there’s none I’ve renounced
That all I renounce is all from which I divert
I am the dissident aggressor
I am the criminal confessor
I am under my superego’s penal direction
Announced by my current unwarranted erection
Hunter-gatherer instinct impairs sophistication
And my incessant self-banter is the big ballyhoo
That she now opens the door to
[I’ll stop breaking the fourth wall, mind you]
And facing the best, clutching the worst
I scream to her of this different thirst…

“I can only be one to any part of this all
But I can be all of any part of you
You can turn me into your neighborhood Nero
I can be your convenient antihero
Bend me into a voyeur of what you despise
Shape me into a fascist – watch my power rise
You would obviously wish I didn’t exist
If generic values didn’t get in the way
Manipulate me to fit the evils that persist
So you may smite me for the day.”

And calmly she attempts to deflect the blame

“Raison d’être is a flimsy vehicle for urge
I ask you, eldritch one, do you wish to taint or purge?
I am not the Übermensch you obviously find me to be
I am not a judge for your modus operandi.”

I see this not as disclaimer, but a cryptic confession
That one who betrays a model provokes her aggression

“Contrainte, elle est ne sans peur et sans reproche, [Constraint, she is not without fear and without reproach]
Go ahead and talk of me as you do with the morally posh.
No war’s good, no peace is bad, but this needs elaboration
Lay my flaws on the stand so I can start my renovation.”

Her eyes glare into the black hole awaiting righteous indignation
Clinging to her peace of mind, she makes this declaration

“Are you saying I have damned you with colloquial hyperbole?
No wonder you’re still lonely – ladies never say what they mean!
Give up trying to be the enigma you think I said you are
Now, me to my bedroom lover, you to the singles bar.”