ITHURIEL'S SPEAR

 

 

Martha Hawkmoth



 
 
 
 


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FROM THE BOOK OF PROVERBS


1. There is no reliance to be found in the heart of the black jack dealer, and Las Vegas is not the place for a visit if you are living on unemployment insurance.

2. Behold the man whose stock options have expired, for he will be ruined after a margin call, and he shall be downsized, and no longer able to afford anti-depressants.

3. Thereafter his Viagara prescription shall perish, and his member will shrink even as a breakfast sausage in the electric frying pan, and his testicles wither helplessly before him like a pair of crab-apples in November.

4. Teen-aged vermin living in Bel-Air will find their skateboards reduced to splinters and their hip-hop media, devoid of musical taste, permanently deleted.

5. For their baggy-assed, crotch-schlepping comportment is displeasing in the eyes of the Lord, and an unsustainable insult to everyone else in the neighborhood as well.

6. How quickly the ozone layer deteriorates, how swiftly the real income of households diminisheth.

7. The supermarket is again out of organic artichoke hearts and Creole chipotle mustard.

8. I say to everyone: stop whining about outsourcing and grab your fair share instead. Rejoice in the arias of Puccini; clean your garage annually; do not neglect the flossing of teeth.

9. If your iPod malfunctions, cast it from you. If you can find some grass somewhere, smoke it. When afflicted with doubt, twirl.

10. Embrace your yobbish, chronically depressed relatives. Play with godlike abandon upon the saxophone, and establish rapport with your local air quality management agency.

11. Cocoa flavinoids have been shown to extend longevity, and two Margaritas at dinnertime don't hurt either.

12. Behold the daughters of Petaluma, how their naked midriffs and tattooed behinds glisten in the noon-day sun.

13. Their faces are bright with make-up; they perspire not, even as they weave through traffic, clutching their cell-phones in meaningless discourse.

14. Behold their nerdy boy-friends, how they target terrorist nests on their computer screens while simultaneously subitizing biomorphically enhanced breasts.

15. Season your shattered dreams and destitute sexual phantasies with 15-minute pizza mix and bake without regret.

16. In seedtime the sluggard plows not: when he looks for the harvest, well du-uh, the payoff is absent.

17. Be not emulous of foreign currency brokers, for their debts will not be forgiven, and they shall be buried under a ton of poo.

18. Surely it is foolish to greet an assembly of women in the marketplace with the words, “Konnichi-wa, Bitches!”

19. Avoid Pottawattamie Creek, skin eruptions severally, and all travel poetry. Abandon neutral color schemes mandated by bourgois decorators.

20. Crush collectible figurines with your fingers. Breed prize-winning shrimp. Run barefoot through the Boston Public Library. Find a Goth shop in your neighborhood and get a makeover. Dare to fart!

21. Surely the virtuous person will eschew the neo-conservative agenda, and, nourished with the kosher steam dumplings of invincible wok-fried wisdom, will rock like a god the length of his/her days.