A Letter to Michele

Michele,
this world is full of cold, unfeeling people
who know how to conform
and make an appearance of being
civilized,
while strangling others with their walls
of silence and indifference.

Michele,
I live each day hoping that some day
the rays of the Sun may enter their
hearts of brick and metal
and disrupt their monotonous
9 to 5 existence.

Michele,
these people are automatons
who cannot see others beyond
their assigned function.

Their function is to stifle all
creativity,
their function is to keep
the machine in a proper working
order.

I’m just an absurd and impertinent
individual
in their eyes.

Well, you know what I say to that,
darling!

I say stars, I say oceans
and I say beauty.

And I say that they are all uptight!
That’s right!  Those goddamn liberals, too,
with their sociology, psychology,
bullshitology backgrounds,
who distrust any kind of emotional
expression!

To hell with them all, darling!

They will not chain my spirit,
THEY WILL NOT PREVENT ME
FROM EXPRESSING MY SEXUAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL/SOCIAL/
BIOLOGICAL/ROMANTIC/DISTURB(ed)ING CONDITION

What is my condition but that
of a frustrated poetosis--

I’m just another dreamy crackpot
who has a hard time adjusting
to their bondage and abuse.

When they dragged me out of the
womb, I was kicking
and screaming.

AND I’M STILL KICKING AND SCREAMING.

Children are an obscene nuisance, Michele.
They like to kick and scream,
and their parents go crazy.

But society is not my parent.
Those bastards don’t understand
things like love and poetry.

Porcupines--that’s what they understand--
Bloody porcupines!
And toads and frogs!
They like to kill toads and frogs
for their bloody experiments.

LIFE IS JUST AN EXPERIMENT OF HOW LONG
ONE CAN STAY IN AN ISOLATION TANK WITHOUT
GOING CRAZY.

WELL, I AM GOING CRAZY!!!

Bloody fish are going crazy
and the birds and the bears
and the rabbits and the lizards
are all functionally psychotic.

Why?

Because some assholes are polluting
our natural habitat
and building skyscrapers,
banks, condominiums, supermarkets,
and shopping plazas.

BASTARDS!

RUTHLESS, UNFEELING BASTARDS
CAUGHT UP IN A MEGALOMANIACAL RAT RACE!!!

You see, Michele,
I’m not really well,
I’m not able to concentrate on my
school work.

                                          March 28, 1988
                                       --Alexander Shaumyan