Living Public Nightmare: 2016 Presidential Campaign

Dystopian fictions
canoe down
whitewater rapids,
From dream to consciousness…

At the diner, the cook in the back,
who eyed your black friend suspiciously and
the wealthy elite who tells
his friends about the ‘lazy’ Hispanic
sucking the government’s teat,
they are at the podium with
reality TV theatrics

Marginalized, hate-guzzling Islamic radicals
goad them on…it’s as if they’re in this
together

The brick wall contender runs to the racist wealthy elite
and proves her patriotism by saying the
words “Islamic radical.”
And now, that’s all that is required –
not to have a coherent policy but
to apply two words when referencing
a certain kind of cyclical terrorism and
counter responses that remind one they’re
amidst a Hobbesian state of
anarchic nightmare

Totalitarian gleaming eyes hold a
thirsty cradle in the jailed wind;
crowds beckon to the cradle, “Save us!”
A thirsty man in his window repeats, in pious fashion,
“Islamic radical, Muslim terrorist.”
And the Hobbesian state of nature
disappears immediately, for he has
defined the radical other.

Let us destroy their villages with
stealthy drones so that they may attack again.
And again, we can get on our knees and pray, enunciating clearly these words:
“Islamic radical, Muslim terrorist.”

Peter F. Crowley is an independent writer and scholar with a M.S. in Conflict Resolution, Global Studies from Northeastern University. His writings can be found in Truthout, Antiwar.com. Mint Press News, Boston Literary Magazine, Ethnic Studies Review and several other publications Read other articles by Peter F..