Coming Up For Breath I Glimpse: Poem by Levie Warman

Don't Bite - draw in slowly
Whispers of the sibilant hosts
Left and right of stage press in
To shout for and against
Their liberal perversions
A febrile drenching

We listen disproportionately
To the loud disproportion
We allow the freedom to disrespect
We believe the bigoted press
We absorb the guile
Behind our choke
Choose the common sound-bite
Trend the bottled tonic
In our snake oil reality:
Irony passes for a shower
And a plague goes unnoticed
Creeping perils our attentions evade
Squelching in our egos
Media treats distract the
Puppies to perverts and ponces
Haltered and barking
Demonizing where directed
Fed on insidious drool
Licking the crumbs of uncertainty
Scrambling for the poisoned steak
Swearing to feed our selfish fetish
Leaping into the bag with the stones
Personality is a shallow noise
And an ignominious backdrop

And in a slow march at rush-hour
I'm still holding my nose
The anathema of breathing
Against a rotting core
Which with a smile and a blazer
Or spit and snarl
Is stealing common-sense itself
Until I suffocate disabled.
Like a flaming monk.