When in Rome
- Used to be you could know everything
- there was to know
- like Nebakanezer built Babylon
- or the golden China monkey,
- sunwukong,
- has a face that gets bluer
- when it eats overripe plums. That’s when
- we could be self-righteous about
- our god,
- spiral to heaven
- white stick in the blackness.
- That’s when we did it to show off
- before everything fanned out
- into the painted billfold.
- The city is cardboard
- and an old Coke sign modified to say
- GUNZ 4 GAZA
- like it’s written in blood. Here
- bootlegs spread like African
- AIDS cases
- and the Spiderman 3 DVD
- is subbed in 4 languages
- though we’ve got to watch it
- with the time code
- on a Zony handheld with no volume control.
- Banana! Banana!
- There’s a feeling around
- like strike anywhere matches
- and bong water. Art has no
- place in this place
- or its graffiti,
- like cavepainting
- worshiping the world’s image
- as a beast.
- A monster.