Damned
Doomend
Condemend
You can't even see it
The hubris on your face
Your lipstick made
of scrambled
eggs
"Liberalize Yourself" Tik-Tok Filter
You don't remember Red River,
do you
Never found the lightswitch
for the moon
Or scuffed your boots on neon
Stones with the pung
Krockers on the corner
8th & Red River, Austin
I bet you don't even believe
in the levitating
reflecting
Pool anymore,
floating like a nightgown
above the neon,
gravel sea
You probably think you have the
right
to improve upon me
morally
To laugh at the birds who faceplant
into the brick wall you have
constructed
At the end of your dying,
dead-end street
The one-way road to hell
You have paved with the bones
of a once-thriving
culture
Thanks again for the unsolicited enlightenment
training at P. Terry's,
as though
the case for your own self-important
mediocrity
wasn't strong enough
already
Did you bring the atomic bum?
Did you drop him on the sidewalk?
Or was he in fact a piece of
Spiritual chewing gum,
Embedded there already?
California, actually
I saw a fireball of pigeons
cursing the heavens
like a moron;
Was that him?
Or merely Satan?
Is he a member of your arsenal?
Your backup plan of aggressive victimhood?
Is he yet another projection of your
moralizing moral
cowardice
Posing like a mannequin in the
shopping mall
Of wannabe oppression?
Is he an officer in the army
of undead zombie
weeds?
It wasn't my business, but
since you brought it
up,
If you're worried about dangerous
Emissions rip your
Tongue out
Hitlerjugend 2.0
I tried to find another
title for this
poem,
Because looking at pictures
of Special Ed students
fills me with
Sympathy and love,
And even if that wasn't the opposite
of how you make me
feel,
I don't want to insult those people.
They are innocent and beautiful.
You have nothing in common with them.
You are hateful, and will give account
for the smugness you
exude,
But I can't think of another title,
and sitting at the open mic
on Congress,
I felt like somebody with a street PhD
hanging out in the stuffed
animal section
Of the weakest mental
Thrift store in the world
Trinity Street, Austin
It's unfortunate and sad,
and in fact against
my will
Because you are on the surface
beautiful,
But immediately below the clouds,
and the graveyards and the
trees you are a
nightmare
Oakwood Cemetery, Austin
So,
out of respect and sympathy for the beautiful,
innocent souls who need a special
education,
Please accept my regret in advance
for not being able to think
of a better way to
put it;
The metaphor is neither strictly
accurate nor
pretty,
But Austin is a Special Ed class
pretending to be a
city
©2025 Nathan Payne
