James Mirarchi- A Poem

      PROPAGANDA

 

At the club Corky’s

Headlining regularly was

The Mothers and Smashfist

 

The Mothers was a punk band

Comprised of lesbians with shaved heads

And was popular in certain circles

For their songs

“Nancy Napalm” and “Dope and Dames”

 

Smashfist was a heavy metal band

Comprised of male skinheads

 

There was (understandable) contention

Between these two groups

 

One night

The lesbians infiltrated

The skinhead’s concert

They charged on stage with pistols

Holding the band and their audience

At gunpoint

 

The Mothers forced

Smashfist’s lead singer

To totally strip

He did

One of the lesbians then pointed

With her gun

Toward his infant-sized peepee

And announced to the club

See what I had to contend with?

One drunken fling was enough!

 

The audience almost bust a gut

Laughing!

 

Smashfist later counterattacked

By planting a bomb underneath

Their rival’s car

 

It would detonate as planned

Killing all members of The Mothers

 

It was shortly after

That two young sisters named

Molly and Bryce

Moved into the apartment

Above Corky’s

Where the bald ghosts

Of The Mothers

Now restlessly roamed

 

Molly and Bryce

Were blonde suburbanites

Who moved into this poor area

Because they had a penchant

For blue collar men

 

They were quite girly

Attending cosmetology school

And florally-decorating their apartment

But had boyish elfin features

Underscored by pageboy haircuts

 

The lesbian ghosts

Soon discovered these sisters

And invaded their apartment

Playfully harassing them

 

Since they were fond

Of a club’s dark ambiance

The ghosts’ favorite places

To nest were

A closed cupboard

A bathtub drain

Or even the circles

Under the sisters’ eyes

They played their music

In these dim places

 

During the night

Their shouted lyrics and raw guitars

Would suddenly blare

Waking Mollie and Bryce

Who immediately assumed

The music was coming

From the club below

 

Frequently

Mollie and Bryce would discover

Swollen bags under their eyes

Caused by the internal pressure of yelling vocals

 

One day

They phoned Luke, the handyman

(Who they had yet to meet)

To come and fix a leaky faucet

When he arrived

They immediately became

Smitten with him

He was a hulking Viking guy

With long blonde hair

 

Kinkily

He asked both sisters out

Sluttishly

They accepted his invitation

 

The Mothers became alarmed

By this

Especially when they realized

Luke was a skinhead member

Of their rival band Smashfist

 

They devised a plan

For getting Mollie and Bryce

Away from Luke:

They would subtly brainwash them

 

While the sisters slept

The ghosts slithered

Into their ear canals

And whispered propaganda

(Mantras)

To subliminally condition them

Into hating Luke:

He is a skinhead pig

He is a bigot

He rapes women

 

After several nights of brainwashing

Molly and Bryce woke up

One morning

With a newfound anger and indignance

 

On one of their dates

With Luke

They even accused him

Of being a skinhead

 

Shocked

And guilty

Luke came back

By saying he was a reformed skinhead

And no longer a member

Of Smashfist

 

The most revealing revelation

Soon came after

When Luke announced

That he was gay

And sleeping with a bodybuilder

He also divulged

He was quite aware

That the only reason he was attracted

To Molly and Bryce

Was because of their androgynous features

But kept on dating them

Because they were a distraction

From the painful truth

 

Like The Mothers

This ex-member of Smashfist

Used these innocents

For political means

 

Oppressed and Oppressor

Were somehow equal

In their relentless tactics

 

 

BIO

James Mirarchi grew up in Queens, New York. In addition to his poetry collections, Venison and Dervish, he has written and directed short films, which have played festivals. His poems have appeared in several independent literary journals. Links to his work can be found @: www.thehydratedpoet.blogspot.com/