Allison Kruise
Break Free California Break Free Vermont I Hate to Love
All that You Represent in America
We keep these smiling pictures of our outside lives
on caved-in walls
that corporate of corporate
(oh corporate!)
sodomizes
into America .
smiling
smiling
cheek touching cheek
touching
touchingsmile for me
smile
with the one we say we love
with shame
with shame of choice
with shame of feminine
with shame of a man to watch his woman raped
with shame of a woman's Rashomon
with shame of perception
with shame of cowardice
The world is hell smiling
into our gums.
with shame of choice
who is right
what is real
what is surviving in a world
where people can't look at each other in a photo to capture the reality of a moment in action
No.
smile for me
smile for the camera
smile
No.
Smile for corporate conservative evangelical rednecks.
Smile to block the blocks of concrete on any given street on any given work week.
Just smile.
i feel
as if my mind and heart are constant vagrants while my bones and skin remain stagnant bolted down into this place i wish only to tear my shirt in two before the trees before the eyes of Elijah before a capitalist's splintered fingernails before freedom before lack before desire before the samurai of nature's choice
but who are we to meet Frost in a strange wood far from the sea
who are we
who are we
who are we
who do we love
who do we perceive
who do I need
who survives
but who are we to stop smiling.
but who are we to break the camera.
but who are we to destroy the ignorance of innocence.
but who are we to fall in love.
but who are we to lust after our own sexy parts.
but who are we to judge thee in the hour of judgment.
So they yell out from their penthouse glassed-in office spaces
from the crosses they bare through diamond encrusted gold
“MY PEOPLE I AM WITH GOD.”
Now see their beautiful wives.
We all want to fuck them too.
“MY PEOPLE I AM WITH GOD.”
Now see their black silk suits.
We all want to feel that breathable.
“MY PEOPLE…”
into sounds of flooding cities
into grunts of buildings fallingACTION!
pose for me, my love.
A.P. Kruise lives in her husband's house north of Pittsburgh, PA. She recieved her MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She is part-time instructor at the Community College of Beaver County, but she pays the bills by working under the sweaty armpit of Corporate America. Her work has been featured in Pitkin in Progress, BloodLotus, SN Review and andwerve.