Statement of Record

Patriotic American

P

Patriotic American

P

xxxxPatriotic American stands at the dais of locomotion
xxqualitatively better in breeding because of the standard
of care to be found in the rustic yards and villages that still
stand up for what was conquered in our wars for what we took
what is now owned by us these plots of lands we seized arriving
xxlong ago making mandates on our own abrupt and close to
xxxxperfect in deceiving how the former inhabitants
xxxxxxsuffered when we came we know and do not
xxxxxcare

xxxxPatriotic American winces when you mention imperfections
xxhugging tightly to naive ideas about ideals and not at all in tune
with the grim realities having been pandered to for so long by consumptive
bigots distorting words

xxxxPatriotic American shivers in the outhouse arm pockmarked
xxunintelligible longing buried under waves of morphinated haze
clinging tight to slanders seeded endlessly that they might drown in use
bury themselves consumed lusting machinery bodies feeding dreams of wanton
violation undersinging to want like none dared articulate before needy no one
xxincapable of suffering willingly in the right way any more twin
xxxxdream of safety merged with that of pleasure until the two
xxxxxxare inextricable like snakes in heat in ancient myth
xxxxxxxxwhich when unbound unbind the gender of the
xxxxxxxxxxunbinder switch the polarity thus safety
xxxxxxxxxxxxand pleasure become again tied up
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxand we’re tied too and so it
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxseems we’ve become
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxpuppets but it’s not
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxlike that the
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxstrings
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxdon’t
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxgo anywhere they’re just between us
however much I hate you

About the author

Stu Watson is a writer, artist, and teacher living in Brooklyn. He is a founder and editor of Prelude, a Pushcart Prize winning journal of poetry and criticism. His work has appeared or is forthcoming at Denver Quarterly, inter|rupture, Powder Keg, PANK, The Collapsar, Queen Mob's Teahouse, White Wall Review, and in the Brooklyn Poets Anthology. His manuscript 'Communicatingroups' was a finalist for the 2016 and 2017 National Poetry Series contests. A PhD candidate in English Literature at The Graduate Center, CUNY, he teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Statement of Record

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