Two Poems
Christopher Bernard
[Total Pages: 4]
Bernard Page 1

Dogville

Welcome to the chalked tangle,
welcome to the dead mine,
to the unelmed street, the dead seat
of the unthroned. Where the bog darks.

You do not have a visa?
Go to the wall, or better yet, a cell. You do not
have a constitution in your pocket?
The buzzer emphatically screams. Go to hell.

Believe, oh infidel, in the apodictic
right of freedom's lie,
of the unconstrained pursuit of happiness
into the labyrinth of the dog's tail.

***




March, smile, wave. The scag unfurls
into the eagle's might. A president
descends into pitch black.
Everyone says please and thank you.

Off with the shoes. Spread those legs.
Aim high. We're all in the all-together
since slammed and burned. You didn't know?
Not the difference between gizmo and Gitmo?

And Elmo! He's our king! or is it
Spongebob of the Squarepants?
March, march, to Ur, to Kabul,
to Baghdad beneath a bloody rag.

***