1 of 2 poems by Dan Boehl | next »

When in Rome

  1. Used to be you could know everything
  2. there was to know
  3. like Nebakanezer built Babylon
  4. or the golden China monkey,
  5. sunwukong,
  6. has a face that gets bluer
  7. when it eats overripe plums. That’s when
  8. we could be self-righteous about
  9. our god,
  10. spiral to heaven
  11. white stick in the blackness.
  12. That’s when we did it to show off
  13. before everything fanned out
  14. into the painted billfold.
  15. The city is cardboard
  16. and an old Coke sign modified to say
  17. GUNZ 4 GAZA
  18. like it’s written in blood. Here
  19. bootlegs spread like African
  20. AIDS cases
  21. and the Spiderman 3 DVD
  22. is subbed in 4 languages
  23. though we’ve got to watch it
  24. with the time code
  25. on a Zony handheld with no volume control.
  26. Banana! Banana!
  27. There’s a feeling around
  28. like strike anywhere matches
  29. and bong water. Art has no
  30. place in this place
  31. or its graffiti,
  32. like cavepainting
  33. worshiping the world’s image
  34. as a beast.
  35. A monster.
About the Author

Dan Boehl works for the University of Texas and writes about art for ...might be good. His manuscript, Kings of the F**king Sea, was a finalist for the Octopus Books 2009 open reading period. Other Kings poems are available in Handsome, Sawbuck Poetry, and Sink Review. His chapbook Les MISERES ET LES MAL-HEURS DE LA GUERRE will be available from Greying Ghost this fall.