The Communist Monument

[GDelmarRatliff]

The Communist Monument

inside me
it’s an urge,
a nerve sturdy, steadfast,
no one can comprise
for me, it cries.

the game you plan to strive,
to win, is already lost.
a disbeliever
you believe in bubbles, nuclear things
i do not live.
there is no merciful life;

before you know it,
you'll have a girl,
a wife, the march,
the house, a mortgage,
trucks and cars
and car-seats for the baby
on the way.

and this is the american dream
you look forward to
in a darkness,
so godless sent
you live and retrieve
the love that bores you out,
washed wind-blown,
clean white
a dish in the sink pot.

you cannot fathom
such a compromise of future surprises—<br>the blackbirds,
the leafless trees,
some dull sky on a cloudy day
you waste away among the rusting.
radioactive and dusty,

you live in a dream-world,
a bubble.
i take no part in such dissolvents

you are, a high stepper,
a 20th century robot,
a history, read it.
the motion, the march,
the love, the motion
you think, is not what it is to live.

inside me
it’s an urge
a nerve sturdy, steadfast
no one can comprise
for me, it cries.
and i sigh relieved,
i take not a part in such greed,
the communist monument.



G Delmar Ratliff