By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes

MADNESS

Madness
to take a direct flight
into the storm

Submit my body
to random searches for poetry
as if metal detectors
read metaphor

Abandon
the gold ring
that stamped my shadow
onto Apollo’s Temple
for the ruins of America

Turn my back
on the Mediterranean Sea:
Democracy’s cradle

Fly into turbulence
shoving passengers
through the eye of an infrared scope
the Botox of propaganda’s
cold-faced lies
spray tanning sociopaths
hacked into white houses
by white Russians
and Jim Crow’s black death

Nothing
between myself and the drones
but “Leaves of Grass”

Landing in crosswinds
at crossroads
incinerated by crossfire

Naked hysteria
to step out into the police state
stand up
for the waterboarded constitution

Witness grown men
territorially
micturating into earth’s womb
dry humping the human species
closer to fossilization

Madness
to bite the sidewinder’s poison tongue
with Ginsburg howling in his grave

Go down
giving arms
for olive branches
in the name of the breathless
for the sake of our children
as a free country grows:

Down with walls

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Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes

Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes was born and raised in San Diego, California. He attended Herbert Hoover High School and went on to study Religion and Theology at the University of San Diego. His book Intimate Geography, published by Ragged Sky Press, won the 2012 San Diego Book Award for Poetry. Ish, as he is known, has also written lyrics for German musicians Andrea Hörkens and Thomas Roderburg (Tender Art).

Latest posts by Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes (see all)

• Word’s Out | Geo-Poetic Spaces - December 14, 2018
• Political Love Affair | Geo-Poetic Spaces - December 7, 2018
• Deer Tracks | Geo-Poetic Spaces - November 30, 2018