Pig Heart Poem by Laurence Overmire

People are getting uglier
All the time
Have you noticed?
Is it so hard to miss
The self-serving secrets in a
Deceiving eye
The jowls fat with pleasures
Sucked out of a dry well of
Insufficient solitude

The crack of our egos whipped
Into the crippled backs of
Groundlings
Taking the stage with flat-footed
Fury

Saber wits cutting holes in worn
Fabrics, too weak to darn
The needing sock
How foul the odor from our
Reeking tongue
The hairy shirt we wear
Laced with maggots
Throws us back in a reap of penitence
To the Darkest Ages of our once

Subliminal past.


(Previously published in Gangway, No.30-31,2004)