Friday, May 16, 2008

Rant Poems

Reality TV by Nicolas Hernandez

Right now beyond the empty streets echoing phantom laughter, beyond the high gates and unbreachable walls, beyond the tick of a solitary clock

The covens of Visigoths convene, mindlessly murmuring moth eaten chants, marinates dancing to soulless rituals

Savages disguised in the latest fashions masking their bloodlust in perfumes and coveting the idols’ promise of fool’s gold

Lacking wisdom, they congregate in a fancy ballroom to pick and rip at each other in hushed voices

From the cities of sparkling lights to the hovels in the dingy hillside they retreat in solidarity watching their lord, the bright screen emanating human suffering

Blank faces blank minds, lying on floors with needles in their arms, hooked up to the latest, their souls bled out long ago, a stain and a stench that won’t come out

Rejecting the last human whisper, they bashfully deny existence and turn to the mechanical monster for an explanation

Eagerly, the claw of Charon plucks the last leaves from the dying tree, and tosses them into the river Styx

They shriek delightfully at the simple exhibition of human pain, their faces spin and voices fade as they sink into quiet insanity.


The Machine by Joe Blagga (N. Jose)

“Right now”

A phrase perverted to the American will

Dictating demands that cannot be filled.

“Right now”

Write a paper, take a test,

Take a test while writing a paper

Do it, Right now

So you’ll get into a good school, a good job.

They say, the two faces,

The angels and devils, cry.

No rest, no time to think

No time to wonder why we must do what they say.

No time to wonder where happiness flows from.

“Right now”

Give me answers the ants say,

Their puny minds not able to wait for one minute,

Until given the drug.

“Right now”

The disease infects all

Blind to everything except what lies directly

in front of the tracks of hell.

No freedom to look around or stay in place

“Right now”

Infants spit out on the assembly line

And proceed to be molded and shaped into machines

Until they break or run out of oil

The final value estimated by the efficiency and speed

That work is completed at.

The whole determines the value of one

like scientists betting on a rat race

whose rats eventually become mindless brains

Completing endless chores to

Fit the mold of the machinist

And fit the needs of those who

Say “right now”

And agree to their laws.

If not, we are filthy hobos, lazy-asses, and radical scum,

Unable to live in a planet where trash, trinkets, and HDTV’s

Are the only source of energy,

and die in the city of steel, a cold, giant machine

of locked pavement and closed doors.

Rant Subprime- Kyle Stranahan

Right now its ten thousand thundering typhoons!

Big blue blistering barnacles,

Great gatherings of Gatsbys and brimming ballrooms of bastards,

The poor people couldn’t pay the price of their preempted peril,

Like calling the lightning of lordly measure down upon themselves,

Dangerously dangling the deceptive deed to the American dream,

Cautiously carrying the coveted carrot in front of the dumb horse’s nose,

No bales of bail outs for the horse or the driver,

Too focused on the carrot and not the road ahead.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dang, you both should've read yours in class (kyle you weren't in our English class so no offense). How come nobody else ever volunteered to read theres or voted somebody else. i was reading the romantic poetry booklet of everybody's poems that ms Nickolai gave us, and a lot of the stuff there was good if not better than mine.

Anonymous said...

stop being so modest dan. your poetry is the best in the world. you should become a full-time poet.