by Rich Murphy

In the computer, the sheep
organize for the Judas goat.
Mister Butt orchestrates
into the pathological corporate state:
“Shear Luck” for fiddling
by William Gates. The second piece,
“Lamb Chop” by Donald Trump
hacks at the consumers
once enticed as voters.

Arranged and conducted
by Billy the Kid, the double-crosser,
the grazing gazers mesh
between wolf teeth, addiction code cogs
for the crank at the disposable
resource machine.

Until a reserve pump sucks and slurps
at a six foot hole in the ground
the storehouses leap over firewalls
to follow dreams, never to become sweaters.

 

[Rich Murphy’s poetry has won two national book awards: Gival Press Poetry Prize 2008 for Voyeur and in 2013 Americana won the Press Americana Poetry Award. In 2017 Body Parts was published by Prolific Press and in 2018 Poetry Press at Press Americana will publish “Asylum Seeker.” The Apple in the Monkey Tree was published by Codhill Press in 2007. Chapbooks include Family Secret (Finishing Line Press), Hunting and Pecking (Ahadada Books), Phoems for Mobile Vices (BlazeVox), and Great Grandfather (Pudding House Publications).]

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