Toys
by Gary Steven Corseri
www.dissidentvoice.org
August 6, 2005



 

Little boys love firetrucks.
Men love fast and shiny things.
The words they love must be fast and shiny:
freedom, honor, duty, country.
Two syllable words of flags waving
and majorettes twirling gold batons.
Tubas, trumpets and trombones
parry the rhythm of rolling drums
while the sun shines madly on their brass buttons.

There must be children scooped onto shoulders
and floats with more half-naked girls;
young men must come in a phalanx
twirling rifles in their bright white gloves;
local dignitaries appear with heroes,
smiling in fast, vanilla convertibles;
the honor guard carry the flags of solemnity
while men-in-black weave through the crowd
with walkie-talkies and x-ray eyes.

The senator must speak of the danger from Rome
(or Spain, or Greece, or the French Pretender,
the Austrian duke, il duce, der Fuhrer,
the terrorist, the Jew, the Niggers, the Japs,
the Yankees, the Huns, the Normans, the Redcoats,
the redskins, the gooks, the slopes, and so on).
The ones not mentioned are the good guys,
posing no imminent danger.

The senator has his eyes on the limbs
Of the bubble-gum chewing majorette.
Afterwards, his words linger
like mimosa on a hot Georgia night,
or maple-sugaring in Vermont,
when you clap your mittens and the frost rises.
It does not matter how they linger
in the minds of young men
in love with the legs of the majorette.

And the young women must whisper later,
Counting their heartbeats,
In the ears of their lovers --
freedom, honor, duty, country,
and us-against-them, for the sake of
the true faith, the true God, the Revelation,
the true book, the Scripture, the Holy Rood,
the Holy Grail, the Holy Spirit,
while the young men come in the young women --
O fast and bright are their haunches in the moonlight! --
making the world over again,
killing us all
over again.
 

Gary Steven Corseri’s dramas have been published, and broadcast over PBS-Atlanta;  his articles, stories and poems have appeared in/at The New York Times, Dissident Voice, Common Dreams, CounterPunch, Axis Of Logic, The Village Voice and some 200 other periodicals and e-zines.  He has published two poetry collections and two novels, edited the Manifestations anthology, and has taught in public schools and prisons in the U.S., and at universities in the U.S. and Japan.  He can be contacted at: corseri@verizon.net.

Other Articles and Poems by Gary Corseri

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