Jeffrey Mackie

Jeffrey Mackie is a poet living and writing in Montreal with

four chapbooks available, the latest being SONORE, Onanist Press,

1999. He can be reached at pushkin_37@yahoo.com.

MUSEUMS

The bright light shines

And it shows

That nobody's shadow

Is clear

I can see things in the light

'the unambiguous strain of capitulation on your face'

In the flea markets

They are selling the history

Of the twentieth century

Kitsch objects of ironic value

At night the museums are dark.

At night

Everything becomes a museum

I close the computer

And it becomes

A museum of my thought

When it opens

I see my words

Behind a glass screen

My mind is a museum

Of memories

I have a few objects

A few photos

Some words written

To accompany them

I have argued with myself

What is valuable?

What can be thrown away?

BEGIN THE BENIGN

Disconnected

Modern

Trouble Truth Terror

Scientists believe: MASS MENTAL ILLNESS BY 2020

We are faking it

Killing with impunity

The news is pornography

BBQ season is over

It's flag waving time

Flag burning time

Anarchists demanding the impossible

Nationalists demanding nations

Separate our world into microcosms

Finance Paranoia - Finance Killing Machines

(the benign

is within)

Raise the homocide rate

Raise the interest rate

Raise the roof - Lower taxes

Lower the boom

I argue / I talk

I debate / I think

I may act (out)

- But the song

The song remains the same

Cleaner brighter (add desire here)

And a luxury (add desire here)

Take Stock Sever The Bonds

Watch televised death

Buy groceries

Hear the neighbours fucking

All in the same day (24 hours)

I am never going to dedicate

another song

I am never going to write another poem

for anyone

but myself

I am never going to say a single thing

About anyone But myself

And I am

Shot out of a cannon

Thrown out of bed

And if I lose You will learn your lesson

If you lose me You will learn your lesson

I think I would rather write

Terrorist Manifestos

Or Suicide Notes

I could make them lyrical

I could make them rhyme

I could make them into:

TOP TEN HITS!

OH GOD, HOW I MISS THE COLD WAR!

I miss the borders

And the boundaries

I miss the KGB

The CIA and Cruise Missiles

Client states and Production Quotas

Barbed wire and Cement

I miss the Paranoia

And the unremitting grey

I miss the Red Flags, Fur Hats

And trigger happy border guards

I miss American self- righteousness

I miss Nicaragua

Slaughtered in the crossfire

I miss Che Guevera

Resurrected every ten years

I miss communal apartments

The Space Race

And Ballet Stars making a run

I miss Krushchev banging his shoe

At the United Nations

And Reagan saying:

'we begin bombing Russia in five minutes'

REFUGEES

We are all refugees

Refugees from love

With our pain and scars

Our fear of

With clandestine embraces

And our pornography

Drunken searches for affection

Resolute celibacy

And our determination – one day

Maybe one day - again

Dunkin Donuts Coffee

Smells like a road trip

It tastes like the coffee you get

When you pull off the highway

To get yourself a cup:

I pulled the Magic Ring

Off my Dunkin Donuts cup

I could win a trip!

To one of the forty countries

Where you can find Dunkin Donuts

The prize you have

Appears on the ring

When the coffee is poured in

It is heat activated

I am pretty excited

Just walking down a Montréal street

And I could win a trip instantly!

To some foreign country

Where I could be high on caffeine and sugar

I wonder if I have to get personal references

I mean, some of my friends

Have seen me:

Hepped up on sugar and caffeine

I can't imagine

If I was doing sugar and caffeine

And trying to speak a foreign language!

Jeffrey Mackie