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WTF

by Jim Benz

When your head is a big screen television
The poem is an underpaid miner
Felled by black-lung disease

When your mouth is a maudlin soap opera
The poem is an African mother
Face-down in a crowded morgue

When your heart is a brand new SUV
The poem is a 16-year old guerrilla
Found dead in a pool of his own blood

When your belly is an overstuffed sofa
The poem is a swarm of flies
Flaying skin from the bones of a child

When your knees become a prayer for redemption
The poem is a mass grave
Forgotten by the economics of freedom

07/28/2006

Posted on 07/28/2006
Copyright © 2026 Jim Benz

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by Lacy D Phillips on 07/28/06 at 07:40 PM

This is just filled with brilliant images. I'm very much in love with it.

Posted by Kristina Woodhill on 07/28/06 at 10:10 PM

REally quite powerful - fascinating structure and images.

Posted by Soulo Jacob Bourgeau on 01/06/07 at 07:37 AM

This is the most challenging and blunt thing I've read in awhile. Glad I peeked in your library tonight, Jim.

Posted by Laura Doom on 05/27/07 at 11:46 PM

I remember this from another time/space - remember it well, for many reasons...
A favourite of favourites.

Posted by Kristina Woodhill on 07/17/07 at 02:18 PM

Great structure and in-my-face - you always force me to think about things I try to hide from in my garden.

Posted by Rhiannon Jones on 07/17/07 at 02:43 PM

Wow. So glad this popped up in the top 10 today, or I might never had read it. The satirical WTF repeated sequence laces it all together in an appropriately pounding way.

Posted by E. A. Pugh on 06/02/11 at 06:33 PM

Nice find! Ty's for the read.

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