WordSalad: The Poetry of Luke Prater

We cannot live an afterlife in lieu;
the next is predicated on the last,
dependent on the lessons: many, few.

Not satisfied rewriting teachings, you
absolve him of his race, Semitic cast.
Yes, Yeshua ben Yosef was a Jew.

Depict him as Caucasian, and to woo
those acts he railed against (wage war? Aghast).
Step out of stone, of darker ageing hue.

No ‘Jew’ as the Messiah, yet you view
their lineage as sacred scriptured past.
Yes, Yeshua ben Josef was a Jew.

His sexuality’s been taken, too,
and Maryam declassed, a whore (out)cast.*
Such carnal inadmission tends to skew.

Staunch Theocratic hegemony’s due
its Karmic fate: no Heaven’s Gate, at last.
We cannot live an afterlife in lieu -

it rests upon the lessons: many, few.

 
 
✩

*Pope Gregory the Great‘s homily on Luke’s gospel dated 14 September 591 first suggested that Mary Magdalene (Maryam/Miriam) was a prostitute: “She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary, we believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark. And what did these seven devils signify, if not all the vices? … It is clear, brothers, that the woman previously used the unguent to perfume her flesh in forbidden acts.”(homily XXXIII).

(Source: Wikipedia). Sources generally: several over many years (none including Dan Brown), and just the tip of a rather large iceberg. It was pretty difficult packing even this much into nineteen lines. I feel a free verse rewrite coming on.

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He’s credo-desecrated; she
is censorship-truncated. They

are mutually masturbat-
ed, grappled, self-inflated. They,

defamatory overweight-
ed, dappled, self-elated. They

want time with God (not yours) today.

I’m cold, refuse disclosure; we
are told the ruse has censure. They,

of confrontational compo-
sure; dark-meat self-exposure. They

are pushingploughing fast foreclo-
sure; white-meat weapons kosher. They

need time with God (not yours) today.

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Obama’s been laden
with ways to get re-elected.

Osama bin Laden
Hollywood CIA stakeout, SEAL shoot-up:
ideal.

Guys in black, downstairs of out back,
with black double espressos sitting silent
but for the clickety-clack of white fingers on
black laptops, black granite tabletops,
inconspicuous manilla folders in black briefcases

advocated and took care of it.

Obama sighs relief, knowing he can’t dance
in light so black and white.

USama bin Laden (no relation),
gestalt entity known to select few -
the public never knew, will never know,
until it doesn’t matter anymore.

But

if a leaked photo of ‘dead’ Osama
helps Obama
end the War on Terror,
end the War
end the Terror

close Guantanamo Bay,
prevent the warmongers
resuming office

then this is a Nobel white lie.

Earn that fucking Peace Prize. Realise
with real eyes, this War
is either over, or cannot be won;
not with Truth, or real lies.

But your hands been tied by

red-tie Congressmen
do-or-die Pentagon
black-tie invisiblemen
black-tie evenin’

worthless smile
merciless guile
keep us clean to keep him in

Still the Economy ominously rocks;
will not withstand the shocks
of billions spent on ‘defense’ much longer.

Corps become corpses;
body of Infantry, bodies of Infantry.

Obama knew Osama had been gone,
ten-to-one not associated with the impossible
inauspices of a September mourning that
Ground us to Zero.

☆

– May 02 2011: bin Laden killed inside private compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by US Navy SEALs in a covert operation ordered by U.S. President Obama. Within 24 hours of his death, bin Laden’s body was buried at sea. Al-Qaeda allegedly acknowledged his death on a website May 6, 2011, vowing to retaliate. No official pictures or video were released –

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.

If onanism means we’ll read in Braille,
Hellish future for mistakes committed.
If Papal dignity is to prevail,

counting of these sins should be omitted.
Forget it, mate, let’s oil the rusted gate;
for my sake, please take these acts committed,
and let my swelling diction penetrate.

Children grow up guilty private bankers,
(or laundering the stains, at any rate).
Vatican stays gold, like Dow high-rankers.

Urinals at the Vatican... (pinch of salt here - and Photoshopping by someone as yet unnamed. Too good to miss though)

Form – newly invented! Stress Matrix Stanza/Dectet (aka Stress Checkerboard Stanza/Dectet). 10 lines, 10 syllables per line.

a-B-a | B-c-B-c | D-c-D

where lowercase are iambic pentameter and uppercase are trochaic pentameter – they alternate the whole way, giving a perfect ‘checkerboard’ of stressed and unstressed syllables, ten lines down x ten syllables across (=100 syllables completely evenly distributed and the rhyme scheme also utterly even/symmetrical mathematically). For those unable to do the iamb/trochee thing, you could try it just counting ten syllables per line. You’ll be missing my main aim of the stress checkerboard, but it may well still be a nice form. We wait and see…

If I highlight the stressed syllables (and remove the stanza-breaks), you can more clearly see the ‘checkerboard’ of stresses and unstresses evenly distributed over the 10×10 (100) -

if O | na NI | sm MEANS | we’ll READ | in BRAILLE,
HELL ish | FU ture | FOR mi | STAKES com | MI tted.
if PA | pal DI | gni TY | is TO | pre VAIL,
COUN ting | OF these | ‘SINS’ should | BE o | MI tted.
for GET | it, MATE, | let’s OIL | the RUST | ed GATE;
FOR my | SAKE, please | TAKE these | ACTS com | MI tted,
and LET | my SWELL | ing DIC | tion PEN | e TRATE.
CHILD ren | GROW up | GUIL ty | PRI vate | BANK ers,
(or LAUN | der ING | the STAINS, at AN | y RATE).
VAT i | CAN stays | GOLD, like | DOW high | RANK ers.

No offence to any Catholics :) I’m sure you can see that this is a statement agains the old-school belief that masturbation is sinful and unhealthy. We have a common word for it in Britain – ‘wank’/'to wank’/'wanker’ (hence the ‘bankers’ etc).

Thanks to poet friend Carys for the brilliant title (all but the ‘Catholics’ part, which I added. Am I going to Hell now? :) )

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Tony Blair addressing Britain

Ex-’president’ Bush and Mister
Blair thought they’d play God,
create Hell somewhere.

Take those black, widowing hands
and say your earnest prayers,
because, sure as Hell:

you’re going there.

.

☆

This was written in 2009, when Tony Blair’s New ‘Labour’ Government was still pacing the Corridors of Power in Westminster, though he had wilfully, as planned, given up the Premiership to Gordon Brown by then. Quoting something about ‘health’, and admitting popularity was a problem (for him, and for his Party), he resigned an ashen-faced shadow of the young and vibrant man who came to Government with a landslide in the 1997 UK General Election. The ‘War on Terror’ continues, George W Bush and Blair never held to account for quoting ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ (and links to Al-Qaeda) as reasons for  invading Iraq in 2003. None were found.

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