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Freed Verse: Two-Minute Hates: Reality 101

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'Rat Face Cage' still from film 1984
(Image by donjd2)
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by John Kendall Hawkins




two-minute hate

In the last iteration of his diminishing selfhood

2+2 = 5, all paradigms are on the table

Winston tastes good like a cigarette should

They exploit

They exploit your deepest fear

They find your fear

They find your fear in there

Algorithms, Facebook timelines, promise to kill everyone who's ever Liked you

Winston with that rat cage on his face

says, take her, take my love, such disgrace, saving face

.

self
self
(Image by John Hawkins)
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me

what is my fear?

I've been in comas, I know how to disappear

maybe if the love the Moody Blues promised proved futile

or if the Furies took over and tore me limn from limn

stole all light from the world, filled their black hole to the brim

the magical animal kingdom, with their animal loving, calling kettles black

how about that

my hatred is hatred and it may just consume me

maybe my greatest fear is that it's stronger than love

.

Trump Wants You
Trump Wants You
(Image by Gage Skidmore)
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trump

he gropes under the table, he needs a rat

he got his brother to fly into the towers, in his mind, drink driving

he needs rats

he pays no taxes, but his audits take forever

he needs a cage

he straps rat tenement cages onto black faces and snarks disgust

once upon a time he fiddlediddled little mary

once upon a time he curtsied like a jinn-soaked fairy

he needs rats the way Rudy needs Tatar, China syndrome straight ahead

when he wins in 2024

I hope he beats that rat faced Al Gore

bucky bucky beaver

.

Joseph Kony, painted portrait P1040746
Joseph Kony, painted portrait P1040746
(Image by Abode of Chaos)
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joseph kony

I hate Josef Kuny

island of the mind

Mighty Whitey ride through the Congo jungle at Paragon Park

Dr Livingston, I presume, a voice says, doc's leg in a croc's mouth

warlord on the cross, army of children, they said

all the sweet US Christian kids were recruited

they swarmed and prayed, armed with statement tees

find find find him,

make the spook visible to see

but Joseph Kony had gone away

like Depravity the mystery cat he did not stay

I hate you, Joseph Kony

I have a bouquet of rats in a spray

but no vase could hold them

okay?

.


'Ralph Nader 2012 Shankbone'
(Image by david_shankbone)
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ralph nader

F*ck Ralph Nader, the Lefties say, 2000

F*ck the Lefties, I say, for f*cking Ralph that way

who opened this ratfuck stew?

was it you?

let's hate Ralph for spoiling the lesser-evil option

without which there;s be no oxycontin problem

crazy as finger-fucked rats playing kazoos and kalimbas

nobody's done more than Ralph to rid us of rats

to punch the faces of porcupines, enema the fat cats

ralph has been a hero 50 f*cking years

leave Ralph alone, you dirty rat

I said, leave Ralph alone

and hold the false tears

.


'Bill Buckner of the Boston Red Sox'
(Image by craig johnson)
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bill buckner

what, it would kill you to live up to your reputation

as a gold glover, the reason they brought you over from the Cubs, put you in there with the game on the line,

kill you

to curtsy to the ball, you rat

even your moustache said rat

how about that

for f*ck's sake we didn't bring you over for your miserable bat

sure, we got weepy years later and clapped when you returned

like some fuckin fallen hero, as if

after we'd beat the thit out of the Yankees and Cards

and finally sent the Babe packing, our curses chasing him

after we'd ruined your life

and hit on your wife

we clapped when you returned

after treating you as if

you'd done Tony C, up and in

chin music with an LA grin

or busted Lonborg's leg skiing, like you were the snow

just waiting to form a baseball bat to downhill the next season

years of booing you at rat-infested Fenway

(and f*ck Fenway, while we're at it)

maybe even the soused rats booed, looking up from a Bud Lite puddle

bucky bucky beaver dent

lookey what the Cubbies sent

but the two-faced rats of Boston finally 'forgave' you

like we forgave the Limeys and switched to coffee

and you went, like Sally Field, after she won for Places in the Heart

You like me, You like me

well, I wouldn't bet on that

you dirty rat

.


'Julian Assange'
(Image by Mataparda)
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julian assange

sometimes you wonder how many rats there are in Belmarsh

don't you?

big cheeses, crypto cats that pssst

imagine trying to save humanity on his onesome like that

so his condom broke; do wicked leaks make him a dirty rat?

or maybe he was just a Cheshire cat punked by a rat

govo transparency and private privacy

rat without a country now

strongly barracking for our Bill of Rights, for freedoms we claim

they don't have them, as such, where he comes from

and they'll want to do ya if you tell them that

but rats are eternal, they live forever

some came over on that first fleet

Dutch named an island here ratnest island

eating away at the face of time

I keep hearing the laughter of rats

in the chopper chatter of 'collateral murder'

plague rats out of Defoe, Camus rats, desert rats

civilization with not much to show for its grow

but dirty rats

and dirty bats

abide long after the earth has fallen

into the hole the bats from Hell came out of

I hate rats

.


'Michael Jackson 1988'
(Image by Alan Light)
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michael jackson

why'd he hang that kid out from the balcony?

why did so many hope he'd let go?

why did Michael want so bad to be white

he to took bleaching himself, and ratfucking Mrs. Elvis

Well, I don't know: I'm not from Neverland

as far as I can tell my shadow's stitched on fine

and I'm not the moonwalking kind

but we should hate Michael for his

vitiligo, like his body ached to be white,

like some oreo cookie oozing sugar

what happens to a raisin in the sun? asked Langston Hughes

but Michael queered the world he lived in by his queerness

we seemed stranger by his strangeness,

I never looked at myself in the mirror again the same way

not that that's possible -- the mirror's a one and many river

while we fed on the face the MSM served up

and pretended it wasn't about race

when the TV released us into the deviant sewer of his soul-upsetting mind

Thriller from Vanilla

Willard's white rats looking to rumble with Uncle Ben's rats in a rice riot

and Michael was a scarecrow in The Wiz, kep' da Jim Crows away

and Michael was a prodigy

that Motown held out over a balcony, and let go

and Michael rowed the goddamned boat ashore alright

his one friend called it spot on, talking to his listeners

and the rats, he loved his rats, "Ben" was a number 1 hit

his first solo single

a fuckin song about a rat in the land of free expression

how about that

Les Mis, chased mercilessly by fame, the rat you cannot tame

we just loved to hear him woo and coo that rat song on the radio

but let's face it, MJ coulda used a little Pied Piper action in his life

cliffs of Moher kind of thing, lured them with his bling

and, alas, he had to settle for Diprivan for his Lethe

and the Mighty Whitey dumpster-diving said through clenched teeth

he deserved it

We are the world

We are the world alright

and I smell a rat

where's my gat?

.


'George Orwell Complete Collection.'
(Image by Abee5)
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orwell

What kind of man dreams up a rat cage strapped to someone's face?

It seems irrational, like 2+2=5

But that we can make people believe that, against their will,

is beyond dispute

and calls into question if it's not true

I don't know, I'm not from around these parts

I think like an alien must think

lookin' down at things a-brewin'

and no doubt not seeing right, misconstruin'

and maybe deciding to give the blue planet a miss

there are other planets to take a piss

Orwell was so terrified by Commies

that he kept a secret list and whistleblew them to the Queen

he was a rat

there's no doubt about that

and when I first found out I almost shat

how come they kept us away from that stat?

but he must have noticed something soul-sucking about Commies

(at the poetry commune, owner Stuart got first pick of the girls )

because he hated commies more than fascists

they renditioned Boxer, the glue of society, to his naà ¯ve death

he warned us, Wigan Pier

rats are everywhere

and now we may disappear

Orwell is the last face we must hate on

Give him a two-minute standing ovation

roar that you want more

now that reality has slammed the door

time to bring hate on tour

bonjour

.


'Goldener Bilderrahmen - gold picture frame'
(Image by eriwst)
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you

where do you stand on rats?

what must be strapped to your face

to get your attention

what is your answer to 2+2= ?

and remember, before you answer, she loves you


The Rat Cage Applied 101









(Article changed on Aug 31, 2021 at 3:28 AM EDT)

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John Hawkins Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

John Kendall Hawkins is an American ex-pat freelance journalist and poet currently residing in Oceania.

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